How to Respond to LendingClub’s Bank Buy

For me, the news that LendingClub Corp. agreed to purchase
Radius Bancorp for $185 million was an “Uh oh” moment in the evolution of
banking and fintechs.

The announcement was the second time I could recall where a fintech bought the bank, rather than the other way around (the first being Green Dot Corp. buying Bonneville Bank in 2011 for $15.7 million). For the most part, fintechs have been food for banks. Banks like BBVA USA Bancshares, JPMorgan Chase & Co and The Goldman Sachs Group have purchased emerging technology as a way to juice their innovation engines and incorporate them into their strategic roadmaps.

Some fintechs have tried graduating from banking-as-a-service
providers like The Bancorp and Cross River Bank by applying for their own bank
charters. Robinhood Markets, On Deck Capital, and Square have all struggled to apply
for a charter. Varo is one of the rare examples where a fintech successfully
acquired a charter, and it took them two attempts.

It shouldn’t be surprising that a publicly traded fintech like LendingClub just decided to buy the bank outright. But why does this acquisition matter to banks?

First off, if this deal receives regulatory approval within
the company’s 12 to 15 month target, it could forge a new path for fintechs seeking
more control over their banking future. It could also give community banks a
new path for an exit.

Second, banks like Radius typically leverage technology that
abstract the core away from key digital services. And deeper pockets from
LendingClub could allow them to spend even more, which would create a community
bank with a dynamic, robust way of delivering innovative features. Existing
smaller banks may just fall further behind in their delivery of new digital
services.

Third, large fintechs like LendingClub don’t have century-old divisions that don’t, or won’t, communicate with each other. Banks frequently have groups that don’t communicate or integrate at all; retail and wealth come to mind. As a result, companies like LendingClub can develop and deploy complementary banking services, whereas many banks’ offerings are limited by legacy systems and departments that don’t collaborate with each other.

The potential outcome of this deal
and other bifurcations in the industry is a new breed of bank that is
supercharged with core-abstracted technology and a host of innovative,
complementary technology features. Challenger banks loaded with venture
capital funds and superior economics via bank ownership could be potentially
more aggressive, innovative and dangerous competitors to traditional banks.

How should banks respond?

Start by making sure that your bank has a digital channel provider that enables the relatively easy and cost-effective insertion of new third-party features. If your digital channel partner can’t do this, it’s time to draft a request for proposal.

Next, start identifying and speaking to the myriad of enterprise fintechs that effectively recreate the best features of the direct-to-consumer fintechs in a white-label form for banks. Focus on solutions that offer a demonstrable path to revenue retention, growth and clear cost savings – not just “cool” features.

After coming up with a plan, find a partner to help you market the new services either through the third-party vendors you select or another marketing partner. Banks are notorious for not doing the best job of marketing new products and features to their clients. You can’t just build it and hope that new and existing customers will come.

Finally, leverage the assets you already have: physical branches, a mobile banking app that should be one of the top five on a user’s phone, and pricing advantage over fintechs. Most fintechs won’t be given long runways by their venture capital investors to lose money in order to acquire clients; at some point, they will have to start making money via pricing. Banks still have multiple ways to make money and should use that flexibility to squeeze their fintech competitors.

Change is the only constant in life – and that includes banking. And it has never been more relevant for banks that want to stay relevant in the face of rapidly developing technology and industry-shifting deals.