Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Shares of so Far are higher after the fintech company
Speaker 2: raised its full year forecast. So Far CEO Anthony Nodo
Speaker 2: is here with us. Good morning to you, mister Noto.
Speaker 2: You know, I think there was a lot of focus
Speaker 2: in the quarter on the momentum from the loan platform business,
Speaker 2: particularly the interest and demand from private credit. Talk to
Speaker 2: me more about that, Anthony, and where you see that
Speaker 2: business going forward.
Speaker 3: Sure, we had a tremendous quarter in a great start
Speaker 3: to twenty twenty five, with thirty three percent year of
Speaker 3: your growth in total revenue to seven hundred and seventy
Speaker 3: one million dollars, and that was up thirty three percent,
Speaker 3: our fastest growth in five quarters.
Speaker 1: The loan platform.
Speaker 3: Business, as you mentioned, was a key driver of that
Speaker 3: very strong results there.
Speaker 1: We basically get paid a fee by these.
Speaker 3: Acid buyers that want us to underwrite loans against the
Speaker 3: specific credit box that they outline. We our underwriting capabilities,
Speaker 3: our marketing capabilities, and our servicing capabilities.
Speaker 1: And we get paid a fee for that. It's something
Speaker 1: we started about a year ago.
Speaker 3: We've already originated six billion dollars of loans in that
Speaker 3: particular business and in the quarter is about ninety six
Speaker 3: million dollars of revenue, so it's almost four million dollars
Speaker 3: on an analyzed basis, We expected to be over a
Speaker 3: billion dollars or third billion dollar business over the course
Speaker 3: of time as the demand for that product continues to increase.
Speaker 1: One area that we haven't tapped into.
Speaker 3: Yet but that we will is taking some of the
Speaker 3: loans that we decline. We decline about one hundred billion
Speaker 3: dollars of loans a year and making those available through
Speaker 3: the loan platform business as well for those that want
Speaker 3: a near prime type of credit asset.
Speaker 2: The other area you want to tap is crypto, right
Speaker 2: You alluded to entering into stable coin markets tell us moll.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We're very fortunate in that we've built. This is another
Speaker 3: record quarter for member growth. We're at eleven million members now.
Speaker 3: We had an eight one thousand members in the quarter
Speaker 3: and one point two million products up thirty four percent,
Speaker 3: up thirty five percent, respectively. We want to continue to
Speaker 3: give our members a full suite of financial services products,
Speaker 3: so Ifi Money is the largest product that we have today.
Speaker 3: It was up forty one percent. The posits are up
Speaker 3: fifty two percent. Our this business are an acceleration up
Speaker 3: twenty one percent, and we expect that acceleration to continue.
Speaker 1: Crypto would be.
Speaker 3: Another asset class to add to the invest business, allowing
Speaker 3: people to buy, sell, and hold crypto coins. It's something
Speaker 3: we used to do and it was eliminated because of
Speaker 3: our bank license. But now the OCCS put out an
Speaker 3: interpretive letter that allows that business to be part of
Speaker 3: a bank again. So we'll continue to evaluate the landscape
Speaker 3: for changing regulatory environment. But we'd like to not just
Speaker 3: only offer crypto for buy, sell and hold, but also
Speaker 3: have it transcend all of our businesses. So using blockchaining,
Speaker 3: crypto and the lending area, the spending area, in addition
Speaker 3: to our third party technology platform, Service is offering those
Speaker 3: types of infrastructure services to financial service companies.
Speaker 4: Anthony, you've got a really optimistic tone, and of course
Speaker 4: you be, and you raised this on a day when
Speaker 4: consumer sentiment is basically the lowest in five years. How
Speaker 4: do you have that confidence that consumers are going to
Speaker 4: continue to be of demand for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're seeing really strong demand for our goods and services.
Speaker 3: Our customer is a higher end customer than the typical
Speaker 3: average American, about one hundred fifty thousand dollars in household
Speaker 3: and income and a credit score on average at seven
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty. From a FICO standpoint, we're taking share
Speaker 3: from the five largest banks in the country, so we're
Speaker 3: not as dependent on the cyclical environment for our growth
Speaker 3: because we're really a secular grower.
Speaker 1: That said, you know, our credit.
Speaker 3: Performance has also been very strong, which is subject to
Speaker 3: the macroeconomic environment. But we saw in our fifth quarter
Speaker 3: in a row of improvement in ninety data delinquencies. We
Speaker 3: saw continued improvement in our net charge offs. So overall,
Speaker 3: the consumers looking quite strong as it relates to credit
Speaker 3: and the demand for our other products like Sofi Money
Speaker 3: and Sofi invest I.
Speaker 1: Mentioned depositork quite.
Speaker 3: Meaningfully as well. The last data point is debit spending.
Speaker 3: We're anualizing about fourteen billion dollars of debit spending now
Speaker 3: from our installed base and that's been quite strong also.
Speaker 4: So you raise your guidance, but really only reflecting the
Speaker 4: beat in this court are just gone, So why not
Speaker 4: raise more broadly? Are you being conservative here?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Well, we raised not just for what we beat, we
Speaker 3: also raise for the full year and our guidance for
Speaker 3: Q two is above consensus on both revenue and profitability.
Speaker 1: You know, we have really strong momentum where we set
Speaker 1: it on.
Speaker 3: The call that we're going to step on the gas
Speaker 3: and accelerate our rate of product introductions and the iteration
Speaker 3: on our existing products. We feel like our competitive position
Speaker 3: is so strong and the opportunity is so significant in
Speaker 3: front of us that we should accelerate our level of
Speaker 3: investment and rate of innovation. So we feel great about it,
Speaker 3: and we want to make sure we can get a
Speaker 3: compound that these great growth rates of over thirty percent
Speaker 3: for a.
Speaker 2: While, anthy, I like to check out what you're saying
Speaker 2: on social media as much as what you said in
Speaker 2: the Earningschooled transcript, And you always use the phrase rapid innovation.
Speaker 2: Where is the rapid innovations And is that something you
Speaker 2: guys are focused on doing in house or is EM
Speaker 2: and A going to be a part of your toolkit
Speaker 2: for the balance of the year.
Speaker 3: All of our products, we want them to be the fastest,
Speaker 3: We want them to be the most convenient, to have
Speaker 3: the best selection and the best content.
Speaker 1: So we're continuously iterating.
Speaker 3: On each one of our products against those four dimensions.
Speaker 3: In addition, to making the products better when they're used together.
Speaker 3: As an example of that, we introduced a subscription product
Speaker 3: called Sofi Plus. It's the best value in America for
Speaker 3: a financial subscription product at over one thousand dollars of value.
Speaker 3: You pay ten dollars a month for it, and it
Speaker 3: gives you access to a number of different benefits that
Speaker 3: you would now otherwise get if you didn't use that product.
Speaker 3: Ninety percent of our existing members have signed up. Of
Speaker 3: those that have signed up for the product, ninety percent
Speaker 3: or from our existing member base, which says people want
Speaker 3: to use more of our products that we offer, and
Speaker 3: this product makes it more accessible for them to be
Speaker 3: able to get those great benefits and using our products together.
Speaker 3: So a really encouraging sign. And against the people that
Speaker 3: are already our members that are taking out so Fi Plus,
Speaker 3: it's actually triggering them taking out a third product thirty
Speaker 3: percent of the time. So pretty strong performance from that
Speaker 3: new product, which is an iteration that we're constantly trying
Speaker 3: to drive across the five dimensions that I mentioned.
Speaker 2: Finally, what's your interpretation of how this administration is looking
Speaker 2: at regulation, looking at supporting the crypto industry as it
Speaker 2: relates to you, but I think fintech broadly is a
Speaker 2: bit more under the microscope, Anthony.
Speaker 3: The early signs in the first one hundred days is
Speaker 3: that it is a more favorable environment from a regulatory standpoint.
Speaker 3: It's really critical that we can tinue to provide a
Speaker 3: safe and secure way for our members to use our
Speaker 3: financial services products, and that is our priority, regardless of regulation.
Speaker 3: So we want to have great NPS scores, We want
Speaker 3: to be a trusted household brand name. But it does
Speaker 3: feel like the regulatory environment's going to allow us to
Speaker 3: offer more products to our members that they need, you know.
Speaker 3: As an example, you know, we'd love to be able
Speaker 3: to do secure lending off the cryptocurrency, which I believe
Speaker 3: it would be a great product, lower cost of debt
Speaker 3: for our members, you know, in addition to that, potentially
Speaker 3: being able to offer a stable coin that could have
Speaker 3: some type of interest bearing element to it and being
Speaker 3: used for payments.
Speaker 2: Anthony Notto, So far ceo. Good to have you back
Speaker 2: with us here in Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.