Anshu Jain has become the latest high profile banking professional to be drawn into the arena of financial services and banking disruption by joining an online lender.
The former Deutsche Bank co-CEO Anshu Jain is joining Social Finance, known as SoFi, a web based lender, according to a report by news agency «Bloomberg». He will begin as an adviser to the San Francisco-based company and probably take a seat on the board in the coming months.
Former CEO’s in Fintech
Jain is the latest in a line of big bank CEO’s to embrace the relentless march of fintech as have both John Mack (former Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley chief) and Vikram Pandit (Citigroup).
Jain may have been motivated by the fact that his former bank was not necessarily one of the «first movers» in the fintech space – institutions such as Spanish bank Santander, British Bank Barclays and the Swiss giant UBS were all far ahead of Deutsche.
Joining a Close Friend
SoFi claims it became profitable in 2014 and has funded more than $7.8 billion in loans. In September, it raised $1 billion from a group of investors led by SoftBank Group the Japanese telecommunications and Internet company whose president is Nikesh Arora, is a close friend of Jain.
Over two decades, Jain helped build Deutsche Bank into Europe’s biggest securities firm. He left in June 2015 as the company’s profitability suffered amid stiffer regulation, a trading slump and years of government probes.
