EXCLUSIVE- With two products and a recently announced partnership with tax preparation software provider Intuit, Marcus by Goldman Sachs is keen on growing its brand through more new partnerships and products in 2018.
“The future of finance is not technology,” Harit Talwar, head of Marcus by Goldman Sachs, said at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas. “The future of finance is to be on the side of the consumer, technology is just the enabler.”
And the key to being “on the side of the consumer,” as Talwar put it, is to give them the best, but also the most comprehensive experience.
One way, Marcus, which is Goldman Sach’s consumer lending platform, intends to achieve this goal is through partnerships.
Speaking of Marcus’ partnership with tax preparation software, Talwar provided some insight in the type of partnerships Marcus is seeking.
Intuit met three important criteria, he said: customer centricity, technology, and rich data.
With its expansive data, and easy to use service, Intuit will be able to recommend Marcus products to its user based on their specific needs.
One of the main problems, Marcus hopes to solve with its partnerships, is what Talwar calls “consumer inertia.”
“If you have a back pain, you can talk about that with a friend,” Talwar said at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas. “But if you’re not going to talk about your debt problems with people.”
This is what Talwar refers to as consumer inertia. With the Intuit partnership, Marcus can tackle that issue, because Intuit has all the data on a user’s debt, income and other finances, and can thus recommend a specifically tailored option that can help them solve their debt issues, he said.
Founded a year ago, Marcus currently has two products. One is its fixed-rate, no fee personal loan. And the second one is its online savings account, which yields 1.3% interest.
Talwar said Marcus has a goal to carry out $2 billion in loans by end of year. In fact, according to Talwar, it is well on its way of achieving that number by Thanksgiving.
Being “customer centric,” is another top priority, Talwar stressed.
“That’s why we have no fees (on its personal loans),” he said.
Another example of Marcus’ efforts to be customer centric that Talwar gave is that all its calls are handled by loan specialists. Talwar explained that after extension research and surveying, they found that customers prefer to speak with human advisers as opposed to robo advisers. So all of Marcus calls are answered by loan specialists; a small, but thoughtful detail to add to the customer experience.
A few weeks earlier in Goldman Sachs earnings calls it was noted that while Marcus did not have a large financial impact on the revenue stream, it is foundation of the company’s larger retail banking plans.