The platform called Marcus, recently launched in the US will be going head to head with other major platforms such as Lending Club and Prosper. With the alternative finance market in the US at $36.17bn, and the global market growing 271% from 2015, it is no wonder that larger institutions are eyeing up a slice of the fintech pie.

Countless other large banks have partnered up with online platforms to get in on the action: Metro Bank – Zopa (UK), Collin Crowdfunding - Rabobank (Holland), DBS Bank - Funding Societies & MoolahSense (Singapore), JP Morgan - OnDeck Capital (US) as such partnerships benefit all parties as platforms need capital and banks/asset managers seek out higher yields. But with a major player such as Goldman Sachs entering in, it could lead to neutral platforms that benefitted both lenders and borrowers into becoming origination hubs for big banks.

Andrei, Executive Director at Relendex says

“Partnering with a bank to offer P2P products to banking clients is one of ways to promote P2P to wider audiences but being run by a bank for its own capital deployment contains risk of P2Ps being marginalised into a low value origination play. Small lenders may also feel disadvantaged finding themselves alongside or behind big money.”

However with initial staff numbers around 100 (many times the number of usual fintech startups), Marcus will need to bring to the table a much more attractive offering to consumers who have less faith in large consumer banks after the 2008 crisis. Many industry leaders are confident that the current players will be able to stand its own ground against Marcus as fintech startups have the flexibility, appeal to talent and the hunger to succeed that can be hard to replicate in larger organisations.

Marcus in a nutshell:

• Loans ranging from $3,500 to $30,000
• Terms from 24 to 72 months
• APR range 5.99% to 22.99%

It will be a while before we can determine whether Goldman Sachs has made the right call, but it will only be a matter of time before Marcus crosses the pond or other similar ventures are launched by other institutions here in the UK.

For a more detailed look at Marcus, we recommend this article by Ainsley O'Connell at FastCompany.