Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein on Consumer Lending With "Marcus"
Goldman Sachs’ move into consumer lending may seem like a bit of a departure for the investment banking giant. But CEO Lloyd Blankfein says its expertise in fintech makes the business a good fit.
“If you are lending money to 5 million people, it’s a little bit more math, a little bit more algorithmic, a little bit more about digital delivery,” the executive told Cheddar.
“And in this new world that we’ve entered into, to be a good consumer lender, it’s advantageous not to have legacy assets like branches, to have lower costs, and to be able to engage with your client and offer them flexible products digitally, and then to manage that with skills that everybody recognizes we have.”
The company launched “Marcus by Goldman Sachs”, a digital consumer loan platform, in October 2016. Through November, the business had already issued $2 billion in loans.
Blankfein says Goldman Sachs offers an advantage competitors can’t.
“We already have deposit taking where we give a very high interest rate, because you don’t have to pay for branches,” he said. “And the consumer business, where we’re certainly charging people a lot less than what they’re paying on their credit card balances. So it’s good for the consumer, good for Goldman Sachs, and probably good for the country.”
Blankfein says the business will “move the needle for Goldman Sachs.”
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/goldman-sachs-ceo-lloyd-blankfein-weighs-in-on-market-volatility-crypto-and-trump).
Imagine a world with just a handful of mediocre beer options. Terrible, right? That was the U.S. before the explosion of craft breweries, the Samuel Adams founder says.
March was a blockbuster month for jobs, with 303,000 new positions – and paired with slower wage growth, an economist and a portfolio manager agree this could be the ‘best of both worlds.’
Resale platforms do big business – and Mercari just became the first in the U.S. to eliminate all fees for sellers and completely changed how returns work on its platform.
e.l.f.’s affordable price point and makeup and skincare options made it a social media darling – and the company’s CEO says the company even gets product ideas from its audience.
Nearly 40% of Americans choose travel over financial stability, funding trips on credit and sacrificing other budget line items to take a vacation — because live fast or die trying.
