Asiff Hirji has joined Figure, a U.S. lending company utilizing blockchain to process the loans, a Jan. 30 press release revealed. Hirji will be company’s new president, having previously served as president and COO of Coinbase and other financial services companies.
During Hirji’s two year tenure at Coinbase, he is credited with growing the company to over $1 billion in revenue and overseeing the expansion of its business and management team. Previously, Hirji occupied leadership roles at Andreesen Horowitz, TD Ameritrade, TPG Capital, Saxo Bank and others.
At Figure, he will lead key business divisions while working to establish the company’s new merchant bank, which will use Figure’s blockchain platform Provenance to facilitate institutional financial services.
Figure currently provides a variety of lending options for consumers. Its primary focus is on home equity lines of credit, a type of loan where home equity is collateralized for cash, even with existing mortgages. The company also offers mortgage and student loan refinancing options.
Customers can gain access to lending through quick and fully digital applications, with the company using blockchain to simplify processing and drive down costs.
According to Hirji, this usage of blockchain technology allows to reinvigorate traditional financing options:
“Blockchain will crash the costs of financial services, making products more affordable and available to all. Figure is one of the very few companies actually turning that promise into reality. The opportunity now is to scale to more financial products and open this capability to all financial institutions.”
Specifically, Provenance streamlines financial operations primarily by removing complex paper document trails, which require qualified custodians and are difficult to access or modify.
