How asset managers like FinEx Asia are using AI to disrupt traditional bank lending
By partnering with fintech firm Dianrong, the newly licensed asset manager is using machine-learning and blockchain technologies to minimise risk
Banking disintermediation – essentially, taking out the middle man – has taken a new twist. While in recent years peer-to-peer (P2P) lending has become the poster-child for threatening banks’ lending business, a new type of hybrid disrupter is apparently starting to emerge: asset managers backed by financial technology.
One such firm attempting to cut banks out of the consumer-lending equation is FinEx Asia. The newly-licensed asset manager connects Asian investors with American consumer-credit assets, using artificial intelligence to select the loans based on risk appetite.
Founder and chief executive Maggie Ng said the company’s three funds now have US$100 million under management. They are backed by a portfolio of more than 10,000 US-based borrowers who have obtained loans from multiple online lending platforms, she said without specifying which ones.
FinEx Asia is leveraging the machine-learning and blockchain technologies developed by Dianrong, a Shanghai-based P2P platform, with whom it recently partnered.