Fintech lending: Financial inclusion, risk pricing, and alternative information

Fintech has been playing an increasing role in shaping financial and banking landscapes. Banks have been concerned about the uneven playing field because fintech lenders are not subject to the same rigorous oversight as they are. There have also been concerns about the use of alternative data sources by fintech lenders and the impact of that use on financial inclusion. In this paper, we explore the advantages and disadvantages of loans made by a large fintech, lender and of similar loans that were originated through traditional banking channels. Specifically, we use account-level data from the Lending Club and Y-14M bank stress test data. We find that the Lending Club’s consumer lending activities have penetrated areas that could benefit from additional credit supply, such as areas that lose bank branches and those in highly concentrated banking markets. We also find a high correlation between interest rate spreads, Lending Club rating grades, and loan performance. However, the rating grades have a decreasing correlation with Fair, Isaac and Company (FICO) scores and debt-to-income ratios, indicating that alternative data is being used and performing well so far. Lending Club borrowers are, on average, more risky than traditional borrowers given the same FICO scores. The use of alternative information sources has allowed some borrowers who would be classified as subprime by traditional criteria to be slotted into “better” loan grades and therefore get lower priced credit. Also, for the same risk of default, consumers pay smaller spreads on loans from the Lending Club than from traditional lending channels.