Midland States forms consumer lending pact with fintech

Midland States Bancorp in Effingham, Ill., is working with LendingPoint to fund consumer loans using the AI-driven fintech's national network of point-of-sale relationships. 

The $7.3 billion-asset Midland States said in a press release Monday that it expects outstanding balances to increase by $200 million to $250 million over the next couple of years due to the partnership. 

“As one of the first community banks to engage in fintech partnerships, we have benefited from the diversification and growth provided by these programs,” Jeffrey Ludwig, Midland States’ president and CEO, said in the release. 

“We only enter into partnerships where we can tailor the credit metrics to only generate high-quality assets at attractive risk-adjusted yields,” Ludwig added. The LendingPoint partnership “will diversify our fintech partnerships and provide us with another source of prime consumer loans to complement the strong growth that we continue to see in our commercial and commercial real estate loan portfolios.”