On Wednesday, May 25th, over 4,000 attendees, including 350 speakers and over 240 sponsors, gathered at the Jacob J. Javits Convention Center along the scenic Hudson River in New York City. The close proximity to the hustle and bustle of Manhattan no doubt matched the buzz and activity within the exhibit halls at LendIt Fintech, the premiere gathering of fintech and financial services executives and thought leaders from across the country.
CEO and Co-Founder of Chime, Chris Britt, led off the event with a thought-provoking overview of the fintech market and the trends he sees from his vantage point. Throughout his talk, Britt enthusiastically shared how the Chime team is positively impacting its users by providing them with a seamless, easy to use customer experience with its fee-free mobile banking services.
Britt also mentioned the importance for leading fintechs to improve how they validate individual identities and apply demographic data in an effort to increase inclusion as part of their customer acquisition strategy, and to also never lose sight of the customer they are truly building products for. There is still a largely untapped population of under-banked and underserved individuals, most of whom tend to trend younger in age. This population has been overlooked by most traditional banks, but the key to growth that many fintechs like Chime have experienced is due in large part to serving these low credit history, thin-file individuals, as well as prioritizing diversity and inclusion as a fundamental element of their business approach. Much of what Britt discussed in his keynote was echoed in many conversations we had with other fintechs we met on the show floor.
Countless sessions that followed throughout the day covered popular topics on how to bridge crypto with traditional forms of cash to unlock more customer value, how embedded finance is key to meeting customer needs, the importance of removing bias in lending, as well as building a framework to prepare for upcoming regulation. These discussions could not be more timely given the current market volatility. As a result, fintechs that pride themselves on the ability to move fast and respond to customer needs quickly need to remain agile in their acquisition strategies as market challenges arise.
Many companies we met with were looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors, be relevant participants in the financial lives of their users, and understand how they can rise above all the noise and remain focused on delivering exceptional experiences for their customers.
At the end of the day, it comes down to the user experience. If the user experience for new and returning customers is quick and seamless, growth in account openings and revenue is sure to follow. One of the biggest threats to growth, however, is fraud. In many cases, fraud causes fintechs to overcompensate by putting additional friction into the onboarding process through manual checks, or some other means, in order to keep bad actors out.
The problem? You are also losing good customers either due to long delays that lead to abandonment or, worse, inaccurate decisions that outright decline an otherwise good customer. Getting identity verification and fraud detection right is therefore the secret to unlocking customer growth and edging out the competition in a highly competitive and crowded market.
At the LendIt event, we had the opportunity to show innovative fintechs how Socure is helping organizations like theirs auto-approve and convert more good customers, reduce fraud, and scale faster. This is achieved through a comprehensive identity verification and fraud detection platform that leverages machine learning and customer feedback to evaluate–with the highest possible accuracy–the holistic risk of an applicant as part of a unified lifecycle strategy. With the power of our customer consortium data, fintech leaders don’t need to reinvent the wheel with their own fraud models and can focus on growth, while Socure provides the safety needed to keep bad actors out.
Interested in learning more? Meet with one of our experts on how to maximize customer conversion, while reducing fraud.
Ariel Zommer is a Principal Product Marketing Manager at Socure. She has 10 years of marketing experience with proven leadership in combining company vision and product knowledge to help solve customers’ pain points with the right solution for their business. Ariel is passionate about following the latest fraud trends and how identity plays a key role in keeping bad actors out. Prior to Socure, Ariel has had the pleasure of working at a variety of businesses both in software and hardware–from corporate to tech startups–including OneLogin, Signifyd, IXYS Corporation, and TIE Kinetix.
Socure is the leading platform for digital identity verification and trust.
Its predictive analytics platform applies artificial intelligence and machine learning technology with trusted online/offline data intelligence from email, phone address, IP, device, velocity, and the broader internet to verify identities in real time.
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