The study pins blame for many of the questionable loans on one particular group of lenders: financial technology firms, known as “fintechs,” which focus on digital lending. Nine of the 10 lenders with the highest rate of suspicious loans fell into that group. Collectively, fintechs made around 29 percent of the program’s loans but accounted for more than half of its suspicious loans, the study concluded. One of their indicators, for example, is multiple loans going to multiple businesses located at the same residential address. That’s often a warning sign, according to the researchers and to program lenders, several of whom have said they gave extra scrutiny to such loans.

Source: New York Times August 17, 2021 18:11 UTC