Boston-based Eastern Bank hired a former Capital One executive, Dan O’Malley, to help the bank learn how it can compete with the growing online lending industry; through his research Dan learned that 5% of Eastern’s business customers used an online lender and the primary reason for this was quick access to capital; Eastern now has a competing product to offer small business customers and has even begun to license out their technology to fellow banks; Eastern believes their credit scorecard will allow for banks to utilize their new technology more than they would with an online lender because of their adherence to banking regulations. Source
