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Loan Shark Evolution: Lender Changes Name, Keeps Up Shady Practices
Can a fintech loan shark change its ways?
A company that once billed itself as a “socially responsible” payday lender was ordered to shut down for predatory practices — but the remnants of LendUp are still doing damage.
Jason Mikula at Fintech Business Weekly reports on LendUp’s latest shenanigans — and the operations of a “new” banking product by way of Kinly.
When LendUp was facing existential regulatory threats to its payday lending business, it attempted a last-ditch pivot: starting a neobank called Ahead Money.
While the company was able to get the project live, it’s unclear how many users it amassed before LendUp, as first reported by Fintech Business Weekly, quietly entered liquidation. As part of that liquidation, it appeared that LendUp sold or transferred its neobank assets, including user accounts, to Kinly (formerly known as First Boulevard and Be Tenth) — though neither representatives for LendUp/Ahead nor Kinly ever responded to inquiries confirming…
