Digitizing loans | Bertrand Billon, iLex | DigFin VOX 53

Bertrand Billon is founder of Singapore-based fintech iLex, which is pioneering a digital platform for syndicated loans and other forms of private debt.

Loans, unlike bonds, are designed to be bespoke, and traditionally have been difficult to trade. iLex is trying to foster a digital marketplace among private capital players and banks, to create new sources of liquidity in loans.

Billon speaks with Jame DiBiasio about the challenges of creating such a platform from scratch and the possibilities for transforming this large but opaque segment of capital markets.

• Timecodes:
• 0:00 – Bertrand Billon, iLex
• 02:09 – Why haven’t loans been digitized before?
• 03:32 – How to accommodate the idiosyncratic nature of loans
• 05:49 – Creating liquidity
• 7:24 – Changing conditions: the rise of private capital, rising interest rates
• 9:43 – Securitization and its risks
• 11:28 – Developing the ecosystem for trading loans
• 14:36 – Asia versus Europe versus US
• 16:44 – Chicken and egg: jumpstarting a marketplace
• 20:01 – Size of digital loans market versus traditional syndication business
• 22:40 – Developed versus emerging markets
• 23:45 – VC funding conditions for fintechs, iLex’s valuation
• 27:02 – Future exit goals