Harit Talwar, the head of Marcus since joining Goldman Sachs in 2015, is in the running for one of the...
Harit Talwar discussed the new Goldman Sachs online lending platform, Marcus, and six ways the company is striving for a competitive edge in the market at LendIt USA; one of the platform's top marketing initiatives is direct mail marketing which Talwar say consumers are highly responsive to; the firm is also not charging any fees, allowing for one deferred payment and staffing its call center with human agents. Source
Marcus by Goldman Sachs was launched in 2016 and marked an important point in the consumer lending industry as they decided to build their own platform from scratch; Ainsley O'Connell from Fast Company interviews head of Marcus, Harit Talwar; Talwar shares what was attractive about getting into personal loans and details the Marcus product; stated that there were many consumer pain points and Goldman Sachs was confident they could help; Goldman also has several advantages to give them an edge; not only do they have their own balance sheet, but they essentially built a startup, leaning on 147 years of experience; they also had the advantage that there were no conflicts over any legacy consumer businesses within Goldman; the company worked closely with consumers to bring to market a product they want which Talwar discusses in the interview. Source