The urgency for banks to offer real-time lending continues to rise, and recently took center stage at a leading bank tech conference:
“I am not a technology person. I am a risk person. The biggest risk for community banks is to do nothing in this space.” -Steve Antonakes, EVP Enterprise Risk Management at Eastern Bank and former Deputy Director of the CFPA
The ABA Journal recently covered the impact of the real-time lending “express train," why the market has moved in this direction, and the risk of banks doing nothing. Included is Numerated's recent impact on Eastern Bank's lending portfolio:
Express Business Loans took off like, well, an express train. In 2016, Eastern Bank originated 606 EBLs with an average amount of $42,600 and an average rate of 8.2 percent. The following year, it issued 1,330 loans, with a 9.2 percent average rate and a $37,000 average loan total. The next step: spinning out the Labs unit as a fintech company called Numerated that is bringing the technology to other banks. Meanwhile, Antonakes says, Eastern rebooted its lab unit with a goal to “inform, excite and accelerate the future of Eastern Bank.”
