SYDNEY, Australia—Australia’s adoption of alternative finance and fintech is outpacing that of the U.S., according to OnDeck Capital Chief Executive Noah Breslow.
The executive spoke at the AltFi Australiasia Summit event held in Sydney, declaring Australia to be the Asia-Pacific region’s second-largest market for alternative finance, PYMNTS.com reported.
“We are looking at an industry that did $10 million of annual volume,” he said. “These numbers are from KPMG in 2013, and in 2016 that had grown to $220 million.”
Breslow said OnDeck’s own estimates of its performance in Australia suggest the company “could see around $700 million of annual volume just here in Australia” in 2018.
“You wind up with an industry that is much bigger and much more impactful than the industry we have today,” even if the Australian market delivered an 80% growth rate, continued Breslow. “So, we are estimating around 80% per year moving onto 2020, a potential $2 billion in annual loan originations just here in the Australian market.”
PYMNTS.com reported that following the event, Breslow told reporters that Australia has a “more concentrated banking system, which means there are fewer small business lending choices on the market. And that, in turn, means that alternative lenders like OnDeck have a bigger vacuum in some ways to fill.”