By mid-2017, fintech lenders--often in conjunction with bank partners--were responsible for nearly a third of the personal loan market.12 It is not clear how much of this fintech lending is making a significant dent in financial inclusion, as opposed to serving prime and near-prime consumers in the United States.13 A 2017 study by TransUnion found that fintech lenders focused 59 percent of their originations in the near prime and prime risk tiers by the end of 2016--up marginally over the previous two years.14 Researchers at the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and Chicago found that at least some fintech lenders were able to slot “some borrowers who would be classified as subprime by traditional criteria” into better loan grades.15 But the differences from existing channels may not be large: TransUnion found that around  11  See, e.g., “Financial inclusion is making great strides,” The Economist, May 3, 2018, https://www.economist.com/special-report/2018/05/03/financial-inclusion-is-making-great-strides.
12 John Wirth, “Fact or Fiction: Are FinTechs Different than Other Lenders,” TransUnion (blog), November 17, 2017, https://www.transunion.com/blog/fact-or-fiction-are-fintechs-different-than-otherlenders.