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The Lending Brief - Sept 30

Welcome to The Lending Brief,
This is your weekly update on what’s breaking (and fixing) modern lending.
This week: Three insights. Three minutes. Zero fluff.
Stripe + OpenAI: Conversation-to-Capital
🤔 What's going on?
Remember last week's PayPal-Google payments protocol? Stripe just raised the stakes. On September 29, they launched ChatGPT checkout with OpenAI's "Agentic Commerce Protocol." Users can now buy from Etsy sellers directly in chat - never leaving the conversation. Shopify's million+ merchants (including Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx) coming soon. Same day, Worldpay's Embedded Finance Engine helped one client fund $14.2M in loans.
💡 Why does it matter?
Stripe isn't just processing payments - they're becoming the financial backbone of AI commerce. But here's what matters for lenders: The same technology that lets people buy shoes in a chat will let them apply for loans in a chat. When a business owner can say "I need $50K for inventory" and get approved before finishing their coffee, your weeks long process can’t keep up. This isn't coming to big cities first - it works everywhere with internet.
⚡ Action Step: You can't compete on weeks when others deliver in minutes. Start by building validation layers into your process: verify documents upfront, catch errors before underwriting sees them. Clean applications mean faster decisions. That's how community banks stay competitive.
🔍 Want to see Open Ai’s new feature in action?
The $3.3 Billion Identity Crisis
🤔 What's going on?
TransUnion revealed synthetic identity fraud exposed lenders to $3.3B in losses. Veriff’s data paints an even darker picture - 1 in 20 verification attempts is fraudulent. Document fraud has spiked 311%, while deepfake fraud has exploded by 1,100%. Just this month, Fifth Third lost $200M to a single fraud scheme.
💡 Why does it matter?
Synthetics aren't amateur hour. They build pristine credit profiles over months, targeting your bread and butter: auto loans, mortgages, small business credit. The telltale sign TransUnion discovered? 30-50% of synthetics lack the real-world footprint legitimate borrowers naturally accumulate - no vehicle registrations, property records, or family connections. They're seven times more likely to be fraudulent, yet pass traditional credit checks with flying colors.
But here's what traditional checks miss: how someone fills out an application matters as much as what they submit. Real borrowers hesitate at income fields, reference old documents, make typos and corrections. Bots and fraudsters move linearly, paste perfect data, and complete forms unusually fast or slow.
⚡ Action Step:
Ask your verification provider about behavioral analytics - keystroke patterns, mouse movements, session timing. Many KYC/KYB platforms offer these features but institutions don't activate them, thinking they're "too advanced." They're not. They're your best defense against synthetics who have perfect paperwork but inhuman behavior. If your provider doesn't offer behavioral analysis, you're fighting 2025 fraud with 2015 tools.
Hollywood's Fake Actress Is Your Preview
🤔 What's going on?
AI "actress" Tilly Norwood nearly signed with talent agencies before actors revolted. Melissa Barrera posted agents should be dropped. Lukas Gage (you may know him from White Lotus) joked Tilly "was a nightmare to work with." Creator Eline Van der Velden insists she's just "creative work," not replacing humans.
💡 Why does it matter to lenders?
If Hollywood agents - professionals whose job is authenticating talent - almost signed an AI, what chance do your PDF-based processes have against synthetic borrowers? Every "perfect" application could be AI-generated. The same technology creating fake actresses creates fake borrowers with impeccable documentation.
⚡ Action Step:
Build authentication into your workflow, not around it. Real-time verification during application - not after submission - catches synthetics before they enter your pipeline. Think of it as your casting director, ensuring only real actors (borrowers) make it to audition (underwriting).
The Bottom Line
Hollywood's authenticity crisis is banking's reality. The difference? When they sign a fake actress, they lose face. When you approve a synthetic borrower, you lose millions.
The winners won't be institutions with the most AI, but those with the best validation. Because in a world where everything can be faked, knowing what's real becomes your competitive advantage.
🔍 Want to see whether you could spot that Tilly is AI?
Check out this Video.
I work with community banks and credit unions on modernizing lending and member experience. If you’d like to see how this applies in practice, reach out for a short demo.
Want the full breakdown? Check out my LinkedIn newsletter Lending Insights, where I dive deeper into these trends every Thursday. Click on the icon below to read and or subscribe.
🙌 Help Us Grow
Know someone in lending who’d benefit from these insights? Forward this to them - and hit reply if there’s a topic you want us to cover.
📅 Next newsletter drops Tuesday, 09/30.
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