The data suggests human lenders in the U.S. are still safe, for the time being. According to the BLS, the number of loan officers will increase 8 percent annually through 2014.
Since the election of Donald Trump, bank stocks have rallied as investors wager that a Republican-controlled government will ease regulations on big financial firms just as rising rates will help boost earnings. Shares of Citigroup, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America have each jumped more than 20 percent since Trump declared victory on Nov. 9.
But as JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon wrote in his letter to shareholders in 2015, “Silicon Valley is coming.”
Here’s one reason. Adyen, a 500-person payments start-up with offices in Amsterdam, San Francisco and 10 other cities, generates more than $1 million in revenue per employee. That looks more like Google than JPMorgan, which is around $400,000 per employee.
Over the last two years, Adyen has been staffing up on data scientists to develop systems for preventing fraud. Adyen’s customers range from Airbnb, Netflix and Spotify to easyJet and NH Hotels. When consumers sign up or make purchases on those apps, Adyen’s software gets to work determining how much it can trust the buyer and whether another form of authentication is needed.
It’s a tricky formula. Asking for more information, be it the answer to a secret question or a code that’s sent to a mobile phone, makes it more likely the consumer will drop off without completing the transaction. Minimizing fraud while maximizing so-called conversions is the goal, and it requires a personalized experience.
Adyen’s engine analyzes the shopper to figure out in real time if it’s a regular customer and if the device, e-mail address and account information are familiar. A trusted buyer can go right through, but any red flags may mean more information is needed.
