responsible-lending
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GAIN Credit and the price of being seen
A lender can make a decision in seconds. GAIN Credit’s longer experiment is finding people the banks overlook - and working out what helping them should cost.
Amplifi Built a £500 Million Lending Machine. Then the Credit Losses Arrived.
Amplifi Capital turned overlooked credit unions into a digital near-prime lending network, serving more than 100,000 people and disbursing over £1 billion. Its fall into administration shows how quickly a clever credit machine can jam when loan losses, funding and servicing economics turn together.
Funding U
Funding U (legally Funding University) is an Atlanta-based fintech lender that gives high-achieving undergraduates private student loans without a cosigner and without relying on FICO scores. Instead of judging students by their family's credit or wealth, the company underwrites loans using academic performance, progress toward a degree, likelihood of graduating, and projected earnings - factors a student actually controls. Founded in 2015 by Jeannie Tarkenton, Funding U aims to serve low- and moderate-income students that traditional private lenders won't touch, positioning its product as a responsible 'last-gap' option that fills the space left after grants, federal aid, and scholarships run out.