Who’s Got Swag?
January 10, 2023
There’s a rush of excitement at Broker Fair and AltFinanceDaily Connect. Behind the scenes there is also a fun creative process that sponsors get to prepare for right before every event. SWAG! It can be challenging to think of anything other than pens and Post-its to jazz up one’s table with memorable tchotchkes so here is some unforgettable swag from over the years:
Broker Fair 2019 in the Roosevelt Hotel, as some might recall, had a live basketball hoop by Rapid Finance. LoanMe brought out squeezable stress relievers and what better way to relieve it than squeezing a money wad. Silver sponsor Cooper Asset had special bags that came in handy when collecting all that swag.
At AltFinanceDaily Connect San Diego 2019, PIRS Capital gave out mouse pads, great for guests to use at work with a constant reminder of where they got it from. Bitty Advance had reusable water containers, smart to stay hydrated while bouncing from sessions to the sponsor showcase room. BFS Capital had a bowl of candy on their table and who doesn’t love a sweet treat after endless meet and greets.
At AltFinanceDaily Connect Miami 2019, SOS Capital was looking out for everyone by having a bowl of mints out for grab. And if one can’t calculate large numbers without a calculator handy, RTR Recovery had guests covered with that.
After having a virtual Broker Fair in 2020, Lendini stepped it up a notch with a hand-rolled cigar station at the pre-show party in 2021. If one didn’t have a pen and notepad to take down information, Velocity Capital Group made sure to have plenty available. Velocity also had a mini massage station to loosen everyone up after a tense year in quarantine.
Although Covid took some time away from events, the AltFinanceDaily Connect Miami 2022 sponsors were more ready than ever to show off their swag. FundFi played it safe with hand sanitizers and the LCF Group knew everyone would need a ChapStick throughout the event after talking all day. FinTap got creative with their very own Staples easy-button that said ‘funded.’ Legend Funding had mini piggy banks, ROC Funding Group had cigar cutters, and Lendini had flasks and raffled off a Gucci duffle bag.
Broker Fair 2022 swag was a blend of the practical with the innovative. THOR Capital had shot glasses and if one needed a coaster for that Lifetime Funding had your back. Now that everyone has moved on to wireless headphones, Dedicated Financial GBC brought back wired headphones, which are perfect for flying. Beyonce said it best, “I got hot sauce in my bag swag,” and everyone could too because IOU Financial had mini hot sauce bottles. Following the tradition of raffling their most-wanted Gucci duffle, Lendini also had mini tool kits and Magic 8 Balls that fortuned all good news surrounding the event.
At AltFinanceDaily events, sponsors always come through with original swag ideas. With Miami 2023 right around the corner, we are excited to see what will be there this year.
Inflation? So What – SMBs Are Bullish On the Rest of 2022
August 17, 2022Eighty-nine percent of respondents projected that their small business will be doing the same, better, or much better by the end of the year, according to a recent survey conducted by IOU Financial. The majority of those polled actually selected better (39%) or much better (21%). Twenty-nine percent said they expected to be about the same.
The sentiment is significant given that 84% said that they were somewhat concerned or very concerned about rising inflation and 85% said that they were somewhat concerned or very concerned about a possible recession.
This data is in line with responses found from other surveys like the recent NFIB study that determined that inflation was the single most important problem that business owners were facing. But even that study revealed a sense of persistent optimism, similar to the IOU survey, when respondents said that financing and interest rates ranked the lowest on their selected list of problems.
All of which means that the biggest challenge small businesses are facing right now is not viewed as a mortally perilous one. Indeed, 74% of respondents to the IOU survey said that they plan to invest in their business in the next six months.
“They plan to fund expansion, make equipment or inventory purchases as well as put money into staffing and marketing,” the IOU report states. Only 5% flat out said that they do not plan to invest in their business in the next 6 months. The rest said that they might invest.
The optimism that is there is cautious, however. Seventy-five percent of respondents said that the covid pandemic is not fully over and 32% said that they would rate the current state of their business as somewhat negatively or very negatively.
The damage from the last two years lingers on but business owners are looking at what’s ahead of them and signaling that it’s onward and upward regardless.
The full IOU Small Business Survey can be downloaded here.
Costs, Losses Soar At StreetShares
November 12, 2019
StreetShares increased revenue by nearly 40% year-over-year, according to the company’s latest fiscal year 2019 filing, but costs soared and increased by almost 90%.
StreetShares reported a staggering $12.3M loss on only $4.4M in revenue. That loss was much wider than the previous year’s loss of $6.5M on $3.2M in revenue.
Whereas startups may spend heavily on sales and marketing as they prioritize growth and scale, StreetShares’ primary cost, as in prior years, continues to be payroll. The company spent approximately $7 million in payroll and payroll taxes in fiscal year 2019.
The margin by which payroll exceeds revenue is increasing (157% in FY ’19 vs 144% in FY ’18). For comparison purposes, payroll expense makes up less than 25% of revenue for StreetShares rival IOU Financial.
StreetShares’ source of funds has shifted away from institutional investors and professional investors to retail investors. Retail investors only provided 43.89% of funds in FY ’18 but provided 86.72% of funds in FY ’19.
Retail investors, permissible under Regulation A, do not invest in individual loans but rather they lend money to StreetShares for which the company can use for lending or for “general corporate purposes” or “other products at the discretion of the company.” In return retail investors receive a fixed 5% annual return.
As of May 2019, the company reported that 80% of funds they lend out go to US veteran small businesses. A veteran small business is defined as “a company that is at least 25% owned by a veteran or military spouse or has a veteran or military spouse as the co-guarantor.”
2019 Top 25 Executive Leaders in Lending – Canadian Lenders Association – Presented By BMO
November 11, 2019
The Canadian Lenders Assocation (CLA) received 124 nominations for these awards from leaders in lending across the country. The CLA’s goal is to support access to credit in the Canadian marketplace and champion the companies and entrepreneurs who are leading innovations in this industry.
The Top 25 finalists in this report represent various innovations in the borrower’s journey from innovations in artificial intelligence powered credit modelling to breakthroughs in consumer identity management using blockchain technologies. These finalists also represent solutions for a wide spectrum of borrower maturity and needs, ranging from consumer credit rebuilding all the way to senior debt placements for global technology ventures.
See The Leading Companies Report Here
See The Leading Executives Report Here
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Mark Cashin
CEO of myBrokerBee | Ontario After a career in commercial finance and being CEO of Transpor, Mark Co-founded myBrokerBee a mortgage broker platform that provides transparency to private lenders and their clients. |
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Avinash Chidambaram
CEO of Ario Platform | Ontario Through his experience as Product lead at Interac and Blackberry, Avinash has helped bring together an accomplished and talented group of experts in Data Science, Machine Learning, Security, Software Development to successfully develop this banking services software platform Ario. |
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Evan Chrapko
CEO of Trust Science | Alberta Evan is the founder and CEO of Trust Science, a leader in organizing alternative credit data. As a saas founder and CEO, Evan has done over 500mm in startup exits. |
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Kevin Clark
President of Lendified | Ontario Kevin is a recognized leader in the financial services industry with over 30 years of experience. Kevin has helped create the voice of Canada’s SME lending ecosystem through his leadership of Lendified and the CLA. |
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Jerome Dwight
VP of Cox Automotive | Ontario Jerome established Nextgear Capital in Canada to become the largest specialty finance company in the automotive sector. Jerome is a Globe & Mail 40 under 40 winner and previously lead RBC’s international wealth management, private banking and asset servicing business. |
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Saul Fine
CEO of Innovative Assessmer | Israel Saul is a licensed organizational psychologist and psychometrician, and a former lecturer in psychology at the University of Haifa. Saul is a global leader in the use of psychometric data for credit scoring and financial inclusion. |
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David Gens
CEO of Merchant Growth | BC David is the Founder and CEO of Merchant Growth, which grew from its humble beginnings in his apartment to offices in both Toronto and Vancouver. David now leads one of Canada’s largest online small business finance companies. |
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Bryan Jaskolka
COO of CMI | Ontario Nominated for the 2018 Mortgage Broker of the Year, Bryan Jaskolka is an expert in Canadian mortgage financing with a particular focus on the alternative lending space and mortgage investing. |
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Peter Kalen
CEO of Flexiti | Ontario Peter is a leader in Canada’s retail financing market. Before founding Flexiti, Peter was in senior leadership positions at Citi, PC Financial, and Sears Canada. Flexiti was recently named #7 on the Deloitte Fast50. |
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Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf
CEO of Flinks | Quebec Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf is the co-founder and CEO of Flinks. Under his leadership, Flinks has become a Canadian leader in banking data enablement. |
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Derek Manuge
CEO of Corl | Ontario Derek, also known as the “the quant from Canada” is the founder of the data-driven venture firm, Corl. Corl is one of Canada’s leaders in the use revenue-share financing models. |
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Keren Moynihan
CEO of Boss Insights | Ontario Keren Moynihan is co-founder and CEO of Boss Insights, a company that uses big data and AI to accelerate lending from months to minutes. With a Joint JD/MBA, Keren has a diverse background as a commercial banker, wealth manager and former founder of an impact startup. |
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Jason Mullins
CEO of Goeasy | Ontario Jason is President and CEO of goeasy, a publicly listed consumer lender. Jason has lead the company to become one of the largest and most innovative lenders in the country. |
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Paul Pitcher
CEO of SharpShooter Funding | Ontario After founding First Down Funding, an alternative lending firm for SMEs in Baltimore, Paul expanded his business to Canada through the subsidiary Sharpshooter Funding. |
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Brendan Playford & Cate Rung
Co-Founders of Pngme | USA Cate, ex-Uber and Brendan, a blockchain and agro-finance entrepreneur are the co-founders of Pngme, an alternative lending platform for financial institutions in emerging markets who serve Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises. |
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Wayne Pommen
CEO of Paybright | Ontario Wayne is the President and CEO of PayBright. Wayne is also a director of IOU Financial Inc and of HBC. Previously, Wayne was a Principal at TorQuest Partners, one of Canada’s leading private equity firms, and a management consultant with Bain & Company in the UK, the US, and Canada. |
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Adam Reeds
CEO of Ledn | Ontario Adam is a pioneer and thought leader in the digital asset backed lending space. Ledn is focused on building innovative financial products in the emerging digital asset space, with a focused mission to help people save more in bitcoin. |
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Adam Rice
CEO of LoanConnect | Ontario Adam has played a pivotal role in building one of the largest online markets in Canada for unsecured loans. |
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Mark Ruddock
CEO of BFS Capital | Ontario Mark is an experienced international CEO with two successful exits and over 20 years of experience at the helm of VC backed technology and fintech startups. In 2019 Mark announced BFS Capital’s expansion to Canada with a new 50 engineer data science hub in the heart of Toronto. |
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Vlad Sherbatov
President of Smarter Loans | Ontario Vlad Co-founded Smarter Loans in 2016 with the goal of helping Canadians make smarter financial decisions. Since then, Vlad has grown the platform into one of the go-to resources for Canadian borrowers. |
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Steven Uster
CEO of FundThrough | Ontario Steven is the Co-Founder & CEO of FundThrough, an invoice funding service that helps business owners eliminate “the wait” associated with payment terms by giving them the power and flexibility to get their invoices paid when they want, with one click, and in as little as 24 hours. |
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Dmitry Voronenko
CEO of Turnkey Lender| Singapore Dmitry, CEO and Co-founder of TurnKey Lender, holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence. Dmitry was recently named SFA’s Fintech Leader of the year. |
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Neil Wechsler
CEO of Ondeck Canada | Quebec Neil briefly practiced law before becoming President and CEO of Optimal Group Inc. where he grew the company from a start-up to a leading NASDAQ-listed self-checkout and payments company. Neil later co-founded Evolocity, which in 2019 became OnDeck Canada. |
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Michael Wendland
CEO of Refresh | BC Michael has led Refresh Financial’s rapid growth since its founding in 2013, including a recent ranking of number 40 on Deloitte’s Fast 500. |
Canadian Lender’s Association Awards Leading Executives and Companies
November 11, 2019
Today the CLA announced the winners for its 2019 Leaders in Lending Awards. Highlighting the efforts of exceptional players within the fintech and alternative finance fields, the awards seek to “celebrate the industry and celebrate all the cool fintech things happening in Canada,” according to the CLA’s Strategic Partnerships Director Tal Schwartz.
Now in its second year, the Leaders in Lending Awards are split into two categories, with one focusing on the efforts of companies in the industry and the other on individual executives. 2019 will be the first year that the latter of these categories is incorporated. The awards will be imparted to their new owners at the Canadian Lenders Summit later this month, where a special prize will also be given to one winner from each category.
Among the winners in the first category are Borrowell, IOU Financial, and Michele Romanow’s Clearbanc. While making an appearance in the second category are David Gens of Merchant Growth, Paul Pitcher from SharpShooter Funding, Smarter Loans’ Vlad Sherbatov, and Kevin Clark from Lendified.
The criteria for the awards were based upon three tenets, these being a commitment to the “use of advanced fintech solutions” to solve challenges in the lending process, the “implementation of new or innovating lending strategies or business models,” and evidence of successful outcomes following the implementation of new fintech or a new business model.
When asked about possible expansions to the awards in the future, Schwartz was receptive to the idea of covering more ground with the prizes, saying “I definitely think we’ll expand the categories.” Mentioning that there’s a host of niches that are worth highlighting, such as blockchain, psychographic credit scoring, and credit rebuilding, which deserve their day in the sun.
“We have a mandate as a trade group to celebrate the industry,” emphasized Schwartz. And that celebration will be taking place on November 20th at the Canadian Lenders Summit in Toronto.
2019 Top 25 Company Leaders in Lending – Canadian Lenders Association – Presented By BMO
November 11, 2019
The Canadian Lenders Assocation (CLA) received 124 nominations for these awards from leaders in lending across the country. The CLA’s goal is to support access to credit in the Canadian marketplace and champion the companies and entrepreneurs who are leading innovations in this industry.
The Top 25 finalists in this report represent various innovations in the borrower’s journey from innovations in artificial intelligence powered credit modelling to breakthroughs in consumer identity management using blockchain technologies. These finalists also represent solutions for a wide spectrum of borrower maturity and needs, ranging from consumer credit rebuilding all the way to senior debt placements for global technology ventures.
See The Leading Companies Report Here
See The Leading Executives Report Here
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BDC
The 75 year old firm is the only Canadian bank devoted exclusively to supporting entrepreneurs. |
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Borrowell
Borrowell helps Canadians make great decisions about credit. They were the first company in Canada to offer credit scores for free, without applying for credit, and currently has over 800,000 users. Eva Wong and Andrew Graham were the joint recipients our the CLA’s awards in 2018. |
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Clearbanc
Clearbanc offers a new approach to capital access for entrepreneurs that uses AI to determine funding terms with a focus on unit economics and repayment through revenue share as a way to get founders access to the capital they need to fuel their growth. |
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CreditSnap
CreditSnap is a best in class pre-qualification and cross selling engine to deliver highly relevant pre-qualified loan offers to CreditSnap banks and CUs. |
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Dealnet Capital
Dealnet Capital services the home and retail sectors providing end-to-end financing plus innovative technology and communication solutions. |
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Espresso Capital
Since 2009, Espresso Capital has provided over 230 early and growth stage technology companies with founder friendly capital. Espresso offers lines of credit and term loans to enable entrepreneurs to grow their businesses without dilution, board seats, or personal guarantees. |
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Financeit
Financeit is a market leading point-of-sale consumer financing provider, servicing the home improvement, vehicle and retail industries. |
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First West Capital
First West Capital is a leader in Canadian mid-market business funding. First West Capital helps ventures acquire and transition through innovative junior capital financing. |
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Home Trust
Home Trust Company is one of Canada’s leading trust companies. Home Trust offers Canadians a wide range of financial product and service alternatives, including mortgages, Visa cards, deposits and retail credit services. |
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Inverite
Inverite is the first Canadian designed, developed and focused real-time bank verification service. With coverage for over 240 Canadian FIs. |
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IOU Financial
Based in Montreal, IOU Financial provides small businesses throughout the U.S. and Canada access to the capital they need to seize growth opportunities quickly. |
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Lending Loop
Lending Loop is Canada’s first and only regulated peer-to-peer lending marketplace focused on small business. |
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Magical Credit
Magical Credit has been helping Canadians consumers get approved for quick and simple short term personal loans since 2014. They offer personal loans up to $10,000 regardless of the borrowers past financial issues or credit. |
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Manzil
Manzil is the market leader in the manufacturing and distribution of Islamic Financial products for Canadians who wish to balance material pursuits with their spiritual obligations. |
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Marble Financial
Marble Financial uses smart technology and socially responsible lending practices to help Canadians rebuild credit once their past debt has been settled by a consumer proposal. |
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Owl
owl.co is a customer insight engine that helps financial institutions make better decisions. By connecting to tens of thousands of trusted data sources, Owl is able to instantly aggregate and synthesize millions of data points to learn more about customers and entities. |
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Paays
Paays is a Canadian eCommerce financing solution for a new generation of digital consumers seeking “point of inspiration” financing. |
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PayPal Canada
PayPal Canada recently announced a new SMB loan offering in Canada – a quick application process that can approve an applicant in minutes and transfer funds in one to two business days. |
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Progressa
Named by CB Insights to the 2018 Fintech 250, a list of the world’s top fintech startups, Progressa is Canada’s fastest growing financial technology lender focused on changing the way pay cheque to pay cheque Canadians access and build credit. |
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Shopify Capital
In its effort to become a one-stop e-commerce shop, Shopify Capital allows Shopify business owners to secure funding through revenue sharing on daily sales. |
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Silicon Valley Bank
For more than 35 years, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB provides a full range of financial services and expertise to companies of all sizes in innovation centers around the world. |
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Spring Financial
Spring Financial is a subsidiary of Canada Drives, one of the leading brands for auto financing in Canada. Spring provides accessible solutions for Canadians to establish a positive payment history. |
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Thinking Capital
Thinking Capital is a leader in the Canadian Online Lending space, leveraging technology to be at the forefront of the FinTech industry. Since 2006, they have helped more than 14,000 small-to-medium sized Canadian businesses reach their full potential |
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Uplift
Uplift’s mission is to make travel more accessible, affordable and rewarding by enabling travel providers such as JetBlue, American Airlines, and United to offer flexible payments to their customers. |
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Venbridge
Venbridge is a leading Canadian venture debt firm. Venbridge provides SR&ED, grant and digital media financing and consulting. |
The 2019 Top Small Business Funders By Revenue
August 14, 2019The below chart ranks several companies in the non-bank small business financing space by revenue over the last 5 years. The data is primarily drawn from reports submitted to the Inc. 5000 list, public earnings statements, or published media reports. It is not comprehensive. Companies for which no data is publicly available are excluded. Want to add your figures? Email Sean@debanked.com
| Company | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
| Square | $3,298,177,000 | $2,214,253,000 | $1,708,721,000 | $1,267,118,000 | $850,192,000 |
| OnDeck | $398,376,000 | $350,950,000 | $291,300,000 | $254,700,000 | $158,100,000 |
| Kabbage | $200,000,000+* | $171,784,000 | $97,461,712 | $40,193,000 | |
| Global Lending Services | $232,200,000 | $125,700,000 | |||
| Bankers Healthcare Group | $220,300,000 | $160,300,000 | $93,825,129 | ||
| National Funding | $121,300,000 | $94,500,000 | $75,693,096 | $59,075,878 | $39,048,959 |
| Forward Financing | $75,500,000 | $42,100,000 | $28,305,078 | ||
| ApplePie Capital | $69,700,000 | ||||
| Fora Financial | $68,600,000 | $50,800,000 | $41,590,720 | $33,974,000 | $26,932,581 |
| Reliant Funding | $64,800,000 | $55,400,000 | $51,946,000 | $11,294,044 | $9,723,924 |
| Envision Capital Group | $32,700,000 | ||||
| Expansion Capital Group | $31,300,300 | $23,400,000 | |||
| SmartBiz Loans | $23,600,000 | ||||
| 1 Global Capital | bankruptcy | $22,600,000 | |||
| IOU Financial | $19,200,000 | $17,415,096 | $17,400,527 | $11,971,148 | $6,160,017 |
| Quicksilver Capital | $16,500,000 | ||||
| Channel Partners Capital | $23,000,000 | $14,500,000 | $2,207,927 | $4,013,608 | |
| Lendr | $16,500,000 | $11,800,000 | |||
| Lighter Capital | $16,000,000 | $11,900,000 | $6,364,417 | $4,364,907 | |
| United Capital Source | $9,735,350 | $8,465,260 | $3,917,193 | ||
| Fundera | $15,600,000 | $8,800,000 | |||
| US Business Funding | $14,800,000 | $9,100,000 | $5,794,936 | ||
| Wellen Capital | $12,200,000 | $13,200,000 | $15,984,688 | ||
| PIRS Capital | $11,900,000 | ||||
| Nav | $10,300,000 | $5,900,000 | $2,663,344 | ||
| P2Binvestor | $10,000,000 | ||||
| Seek Business Capital | $8,800,000 | ||||
| Fund&Grow | $7,500,000 | $5,700,000 | $4,082,130 | ||
| Funding Merchant Source | $7,500,000 | ||||
| Shore Funding Solutions | $5,000,000 | $4,300,000 | |||
| StreetShares | $4,967,426 | $3,701,210 | $647,119 | $239,593 | |
| FitSmallBusiness.com | $3,000,000 | ||||
| Eagle Business Credit | $3,600,000 | $2,600,000 | |||
| Everlasting Capital | $2,500,000 | $2,100,000 | |||
| Swift Capital | acquired by PayPal | $88,600,000 | $51,400,000 | $27,540,900 | |
| Blue Bridge Financial | $6,569,714 | $5,470,564 | |||
| Fast Capital 360 | $6,264,924 | ||||
| Cashbloom | $5,404,123 | $4,804,112 | $3,941,819 | ||
| Priority Funding Solutions | $2,599,931 |
Spotlight on AltFinanceDaily CONNECT Toronto
July 30, 2019
As the heat of the Toronto sun split the stones outside, the crowd inside the Omni King Edward’s seventeenth-floor Crystal Ballroom mingled and munched as part of AltFinanceDaily’s most recent CONNECT event.
The first of its kind to be held in Toronto, the CONNECT series are half-day events that take place in both San Diego and Miami as well. Despite not being as established as the latter two, Toronto proved just as eventful, with a variety of speakers and topics broached, as well as a host of attendees from differing backgrounds making an appearance. It was par for the course for an inaugural AltFinanceDaily show with the attendance figures being reminiscent of AltFinanceDaily’s first ever event in the USA, a market that’s 10x the size.
The day was kicked off by entrepreneur, a dragon on the Canadian Dragons’ Den series, and co-founder of Clearbanc, Michele Romanow, whose anecdotes detailed the adventures that accompany the beginning of a startup. Regaling the audience with the story of Evandale Caviar, Romanow began with telling the room of a post-college venture that saw her working tooth and nail to secure a fishing license, studying YouTube fish gutting tutorials that were exclusively in Russian, and getting her hands dirty with the other co-founders when the time came to put their time spent online to use.
But it wasn’t all blood and glory for Romanow, as the tale shifted from one of youthful expansion to one of reflection and acceptance of the unknown. Speaking on the effect of tech giants in various fields, Romanow explained that “we have no idea of how these industries will shape out.” The likes of Uber and AirBnb never planned change the world, just to change a product and thus solve a problem, and their meteoric rises are unpredictable as a result. Iteration, rather than innovation, is what drives a company forward according to Romanow.
And this sentiment was brought further along with the following panel, which featured Vlad Sherbatov of Smarter Loans, Paul Pitcher of SharpShooter Funding, and SEO expert Paul Teitelman, speaking on the trials and novelties of the sales and marketing scene. Offering wisdom on various aspects of the field, the three men covered the need to go beyond the traditional forms of advertising, instead looking outward towards unorthodox methods of marketing; the hardships that come with the grind of a sales job; and the role that SEO can play when raising public awareness of your company; respectively.
“It’s a matter of spreading the word,” one conference goer noted when asked about the sales panel afterwards. “Businesses have to know who we are, and we’re working on that.”
Similarly, Martin Fingerhut and Adam Atlas discussed the existing legal topics of note to Canadian alternative financing companies, as well as those incoming rulings that may be worth knowing about. Covering both the English-speaking provinces and Quebec, the duo gave a comprehensive crash course on the legal landscape of the industry, highlighting laws unique to the regions. Aaron Iannello of Top Funding considered the talk to be particularly engaging, commending it for relaying information that might otherwise be unknown to American companies.
Following this, Kevin Clark, President of Lendified, took to the stage to talk about the importance of the Canadian Lenders Association (CLA). Saying that in the absence of a regulatory body, the CLA seeks to offer guidance to those companies who are looking for it. Clark asserted that “it’s a good thing for our industry to have oversight from a regularly body,” and that he looks forward to the day when one is established.
And before wrapping up the speakers for the day, Clark was joined by IOU Financial’s President, Robert Gloer, to discuss contemporary risk management. Covering everything from the next recession to the emergence of AI, the pair, which accumulatively have been in the industry for decades, offered knowledge learnt from years of experience in both the pre- and post-crash eras.
And the prophesizing of what will be the next big episode to shake the industry continued beyond the day’s scheduled agenda as many attendees continued on well into the evening at smaller networking functions offsite.
As the sun started to touchdown on the tips of Toronto’s skyscrapers, the salvo of excited conversation briefly harmonized to produce a singular axiom, that there was an abundance of opportunity in Canada.
