2020 Fintech Lending Market Map

Update: Our 2021 Fintech Lending Market Map is now published, so you learn about the latest fintech infrastructure landscape.

We’re extremely excited to publish Ocrolus’ 2020 Fintech Lending Market Map.

Insight Into the Fintech Lending Market

At Ocrolus, we have been helping lenders automate their underwriting and improve the quality of their credit decisions for nearly five years, and we have gained tremendous insight into the fintech lending market along the way. We are publishing this fintech market map to share our perspective on the fintech lending market and the evolution of the dynamic technology that powers it.

Lenders are increasingly defined by the technology and data they use. Relatively new players like PayPal, Square, LoanDepot, Affirm, Amazon, and Intuit, to name a few, have come to dominate the market with their unique acquisition channels and proprietary underwriting data.

Access to banking data has helped level the playing field; new technology has made it easy to retrieve high-resolution transactional data that can be leveraged by nearly any incumbent  or new entrant in origination. Pioneered by leading fintech lenders, cash-flow analysis is going mainstream as the most accurate measure of financial health.

Sure enough, in the footsteps of data aggregation leaders like Plaid and Finicity, even newer consumer-permissioned APIs are popping up for other data sources like utilities (Urjanet), credit cards (Fidel), employment (Pinwheel) and accounting (Codat).

Our Beliefs for the Fintech Lending Market

At Ocrolus, we believe that there should be a unified lens for viewing the disparate data sources that lenders evaluate. Whether loan application data comes in the form of bank statements or permissioned data streams, lenders should apply the same cash flow analytics and risk models, and use interoperable tools for consistent decision making.

For the wealth of new credit model inputs that lenders have at their disposal, data structuring is more challenging and more important than ever.  Lenders who optimize their data pipelines will improve their bottom line with better-performing debt. They also benefit at the top of the funnel with smoother borrower experiences, giving applicants the optionality of how to provide data and the convenience of faster access to credit.

We believe that lending will continue to become less siloed and more modular and that fintech infrastructure will help blur the lines between fintech lenders, banks and technology companies. Though the fintech map includes conventional lenders, we have officially named it the Fintech Lending Market Map because of the narrowing distinctions between traditional originators and fintechs.

Of course, no diagram is capable of doing full justice to the lending industry, and we publish this Fintech Market Map with equal parts wisdom and humility.  If you have any suggestions or questions that you would like to share, please email marketing@www.ocrolus.com. You can also contact us with any other questions about Ocrolus or the fintech lending market.

View the 2020 Fintech Lending Market Map