I’ve worked in consumer lending since I graduated college. Form the dusty streets of Dar es Salaam to the mountains of Cape Town, I’ve witnessed most of the spectrum in consumer lending. When I started in microfinance, it was a people-intensive environment. We went on collection runs to the market to find our defaulters. Our loan officers had a connection with every person that took credit from us. Now, I’m on the opposite side of the spectrum. We don’t have any loan officers. The only connection we have with our customers is through a phone. Our collections are decided by algorithms over a tech platform. I think I have a keen appreciation of the advantages and disadvantages of both sides, and I’m always following the industry. So when Goldman Sachs, a company that has shunned consumer banking since inception, decides to get in the game, I pay attention. And it turns out the way they are going to play the game is firmly on one side of the spectrum. All algorithms, all math, big scale. Here’s a video of their CEO explaining how this happened. I’ve tried to link it to the time he starts talking about consumer lending, but if it doesn’t work, that part starts at 18:17