A Battle Plan for Successful Small Business Lending

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Community banks that are considering entering the small business lending space are already challenged by several barriers to entry:

  • Inefficiencies in traditional loan processing.
  • Changing regulatory guidance.
  • The belief that small business loans are not profitable.
  • A lack of quality lending opportunities to put their deposits to work.
  • New competition from emerging categories, including fintechs, challenger banks and neobanks.

Given these obstacles, it’s not surprising that many community financial institutions have chosen to steer clear of small business lending — but there is a solution powerful enough to overcome all of these obstacles. This solution allows community financial institutions to profitably offer small business loans that are efficient, convenient and compliant. And that is the power of a digital loan platform.

Digital lending platforms leverage end-to-end, cloud-based technology to automate the entire lending process — from application and underwriting to set up, review and renewal. Banks gain the competitive muscle to provide small business loans efficiently, quickly and profitably.

Here is our 12-part battle plan for small business lending victory:

1. Save Time and Cost
A turnkey platform is automated, reducing the lengthy manual processes involved and eliminating the need for additional loan officers. It costs significantly less to originate each loan, even the smaller loans.

2. Automate Booking
A good digital platform gives banks the ability to import loan files directly into the core to book and fund the loans. It should also integrate with numerous third-party systems to automate booking and funding the loan.

3. Expand the Pipeline View
The platform should offer the analytics and the ability to track how many people are viewing, starting and completing a loan application, so you can do a better job forecasting the week ahead.

4. Use a Dynamic, Intelligent Application
Digital applications usually employ a rules engine to guide the borrower through each step and identify exceptions or incomplete sections. The best platforms will recommend the most appropriate types of loans or redirect users to other channels.

5. Your Underwriting Policy
A digital platform will use your institution’s specific underwriting standards for each specific loan product. It will not force adoption of its own embedded underwriting standards.

6. Track Loan Status
A platform can give bankers better visibility to the stages that have been completed at each step of the process, helping to facilitate cross-departmental communication and accelerate the loan’s processing time.

7. Renew and Review
For a bank’s existing portfolio, a digital platform will automate the collection of data, send communications to borrowers and provide a dashboard view of annual renewals or interim reviews, reducing time and cost by as much as 50%.

8. Automate Financial Analysis and Spreading
Cloud-based software solutions eliminate the need to manually spread deals. The lending cycle becomes more productive, since applicant qualification is determined in seconds.

9. Manage Documents Effortlessly
All documents should be housed in one central location. This creates a user-friendly portal for both the customer and lender, where all materials can easily be collected, requested, shared, processed and tracked.

10. Maximize Loan Volume
Not only can a digital, automated system increase the profitability of each loan, but the bank will be able to dramatically increase loan volume. A digital application is like having an army of loan officers at the ready 24/7.

11. Aggregate Data, Minimize Risk
Digital technology collects and aggregates all of the data a financial institution needs to decide on a loan, then compares that data to its unique credit policy and risk rating metrics.

12. Utilize Third-Party Data and Analytics
Any digital platform should be integrated with the industry’s leading third-party sources to access necessary information more efficiently, such as small business credit data, tax records, regulatory and compliance updates and more.

Eight Questions For Prospective Small Business Lending Partners

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For many banks, the ability to offer small-business loans efficiently, quickly and compliantly has been more of an aspiration than a reality. The technical, financial and staffing obstacles involved in launching small business loan products have created daunting barriers to entry, while the need for small business credit persists in the post-pandemic economic recovery.

This creates a fertile breeding ground for new fintechs that claim they can streamline loan processing time, increase the profitability of even the smallest loans and improve the entire experience for banks and their customers.

But how can you distinguish between achievable goals and lip service? Bank executives need to ask the right questions to break through the noise and get real, honest answers. As a provider in the space, we spend countless hours researching the competition, talking with banks about their challenges and enhancing our small business lending platform. Here are the top eight questions to ask a prospective partner when considering a small business lending platform.

1. Is there a white-labeled borrower website option that can be branded with the bank’s colors, graphics and messaging?
It takes years to establish a well-known brand identity that your customers recognize and trust. It is crucial that any prospective loan origination platforms have the capability to incorporate bank branding, corporate color palette and distinct messaging to create a seamless experience for customers.

2. How much time does it take for business borrowers to complete and submit a full loan application?
Research shows that one of the top complaints of business borrowers is the amount of time it takes to complete an application. Any digital process will certainly be quicker than a manual method, but every step of the application process should be optimized for efficiency, resulting in a fully submitted loan application within 20 minutes or less.

3. Is the application process straightforward and intuitive for the borrower and back-office team?
We mentioned the importance of an efficient application, but efficiency can only be achieved if the application is clear, intuitive and guides users along the way. Ask potential vendors how applicants and the bank’s back office can track their progress through the application, and whether the system has measures in place to identify and alert the applicant to inaccurate or incomplete entries. It is also important that FAQs are prominently displayed, and that users have easy access to support.

4. Are there methods in place to ensure that borrowers are selecting the right loan product?
Your applicants don’t know your products as well as you do, so rather than asking them to select a loan product, a top-tier platform will incorporate an automated, intelligent “rules engine.” This type of technology gathers pertinent information throughout the application process and selects the most appropriate product(s) based on the applicant’s inputs. This streamlines the application for the borrower and saves your staff valuable time and resources.

5. Does the system help identify and filter out unqualified applications?
Once the borrower starts the application, the rules engine should activate, dynamically collecting data points to ensure that the application is meeting the bank’s specific product requirements. Further, it should also evaluate the data against the bank’s credit policy to verify the applicant meets the minimum acceptance criteria. The best loan platforms will identify such issues and prevent the applicant from progressing by redirecting them to a different page, product or contact method.

6. How does the system ensure compliance and security?
Ask a potential vendor whether their system supports all federal regulations that impact small businesses and lending practices, such as Know Your Customer/Know Your Business, anti-money laundering, Americans with Disabilities Act and web content accessibility guidelines , among others. The best systems will incorporate a bank’s credit and risk policy into the platform, so there is no impact to your bank’s risk profile with the regulators. Ask whether the system utilizes 24/7 monitoring to ensure the integrity and safety of bank data, whether they are SOC 2 compliant and whether they undergo regular third-party audits of their infrastructure and systems.

7. How does the system ensure quality control and prevent fraud?
Advanced loan technology should integrate into numerous background check sources and employ digital fraud detection using AI-powered captchas and two-factor authentication, among others. Specific criteria should immediately disqualify borrowers, such as zip-code, signing rights and industry type. The best systems will ensure that exceptions are identified and shown to the bank, so your staff doesn’t waste time trying to find them.

8. Does the platform provide automated document management?
Secure, efficient document management is one of the most critical functions of digital loan technology. Ensure that all documents are securely uploaded in transit and at rest. Here are just a few of the features an advanced platform should offer:

  • A centralized document library housing all documents.
  • The ability to collect any necessary form at the right time and have it electronically signed.
  • Functionality that allows the lender to easily approve, reject or request individual documents with explanatory notes for the borrower.
  • Protection of personal information by restricting the viewing of information to only the individual who owns it.

The Community Bank Advantage to Helping Small Businesses Recover

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While the Covid-19 vaccination rollout is progressing steadily and several portions of the country are making steps toward reopening and establishing a new normal, it is still too early to gauge how many small businesses will survive the pandemic’s impacts.

In a 2020 study of small firms by McKinsey & Co., it was initially estimated between 1.4 million to 2.1 million of the country’s 31 million small businesses could fail because of the events experienced in 2020 and 2021. However, a more recent report from the Federal Reserve revealed that bankruptcies during 2020 were not as bad as originally feared — with around 200,000 more business failures than average. Simply put, the true impact of the pandemic’s interruptions cannot be known until later this year or even next.

A PwC study on bankruptcy activity across the broader business sectors reveals which industries were impacted the most. Of the bankruptcies in 2020 where total obligations exceeded $10 million, retail and consumer sectors led the way, followed by energy and real estate. Together, these three sectors accounted for 63% of all bankruptcies.

Reimagining Small Business Success
While a lack of revenue has been the most critical issue for small business owners, they are also suffering from other challenges like a lack of time and guidance. Business owners have faced tremendous pressure to meet local and national guidelines and restrictions around interacting with the public, many even having to transform their business models to reach customers remotely. Such burdens often leave business owners meeting operational needs during nights and weekends.

This creates a timely opportunity for community banks to better support business customers’ recovery from this period of economic stress. Financial instituions can provide anytime, anywhere access to their accounts and financial tools, more-effective cash flow management capabilities and personalized digital advisory services to meet evolving needs. These tailored services can be supported with personal digital support to revitalize the service and relationships that have always been a competitive advantage of community institutions.

Putting Humans at the Center
A 2021 study by Deloitte’s Doblin revealed five ways financial services firms can support their business customers post-pandemic, including demonstrate that they know the customer, help them save time, guide them with expertise, prepare them for the unexpected and share the same values. These findings provide insight into how business owners prefer to bank and what they look for in a bank partner. In fact, 62% of small businesses were most interested in receiving financial advice from their financial institutions.

The Doblin study goes on to explore the activities that institutions can engage in to better serve the small business marketplace. Top findings included enabling an easier lending journey, investing in innovative, digital-led initiatives and offering personalized, context-rich engagement. These areas have been priorities for community banks, and the pandemic has accelerated the timeline for adopting a strong digital strategy. Compared to competitors including national banks, digital banks and nontraditional players, community banks are uniquely positioned to help local businesses recover by combining digital solutions with services that center the human connections within the banking relationship.

As business owners look to finance their road to recovery, it’s been repeatedly shown that they prefer a relationship lender who understands their holistic financial picture and can connect them to the right products, rather than shopping around. Business owners want a trusted partner who uses technology to make things easy and convenient and is available to talk in their moments of need. The best financial technologies strengthen human connections during the process of fulfilling transactions. These technologies automate redundant tasks and streamline workflows to reduce the mundane and maximize the meaningful interactions. When done right, this strategy creates an enhanced borrower experience as well as happier, more productive bank employees.

There’s a clear sense that the events of 2020 and 2021 will permanently shape the delivery of financial services, as well as the expectations of small business owners. The year has been a crisis-induced stress test for how technology is used; more importantly, how that technology can be improved in the months and years ahead. The pandemic, as challenging and destructive at it has been, generated a significant opportunity to reimagine the future, including the ways bankers and small businesses interact. Those community institutions that take the lessons learned and find ways to build and maintain human relationships within digital channels will be well positioned to serve their communities and succeed.

How One Small Player Beat Out PNC, Wells Fargo and M&T for PPP Loans

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Banks took center stage in the U.S. government’s signature pandemic aid package for small businesses, the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program.

But into year two of the program, a nonbank has emerged as one of the top three PPP lenders. The SBA listed Itria Ventures, a subsidiary of the online commercial lending platform Biz2Credit, on Feb. 28 as the No. 3 lender in dollar value in 2021, after JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. Not only that, it was the No. 1 lender, of the top 15, in terms of total loans approved. Itria Ventures was the direct lender for 165,827 approved loans in 2021 worth $4.76 billion. Unless Congress extends the program, it runs through the end of March. The SBA updates PPP statistics every Monday so the ranking could change.

As of Feb. 28, the SBA approved $678.7 billion in low-interest PPP loans this year and last year. The potentially forgivable loans have created enormous opportunities for banks to connect with small businesses and allowed financial technology companies to make inroads into the commercial loan market.

But the significance of an obscure-sounding online marketplace lender surging past the likes of household names such as PNC Financial Services Group, M&T Bank Corp. and U.S. Bancorp for PPP dollar volume and loans wasn’t lost on Joel Pruis, a senior director for Cornerstone Advisors.

“The PPP gave a much-better opportunity to these fintech companies to get involved and it gave them the volume,’’ he says. “Prior to this, it’s been tough for them to get any type of material volume.”

During the pandemic, small businesses such as restaurants and retail shops that rely on fintech lenders fell on tough times, hurting platforms that then experienced double-digit loan delinquencies in some cases. OnDeck, a prominent online lender valued at about $1.3 billion during its initial public offering in 2014, sold to Enova International last year for about $90 million. Online direct lender Kabbage sold most of its operations for an undisclosed sum to American Express Co. last year.

Biz2Credit received some negative press last year as a merchant cash advance lender that sued some of its New York borrowers struggling during the pandemic. But the company is moving away from merchant cash advance products because the customers of those loans are small businesses struggling the most right now, such as restaurants, says Biz2Credit CEO and co-founder Rohit Arora.

Biz2Credit, which is privately owned and doesn’t disclose financial information, pivoted last year to quickly ramp up its PPP lending platform and partnerships, hoping to capitalize on what Arora anticipated would be a huge government rescue package. It generates business through referrals from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and its relationship with payroll provider Paychex, which has strong connections with small businesses.

It also white-labelled its PPP platform to banks and other lenders to process small business loans without the hassles of the paperwork and monitoring. Among its customers are major PPP lender Portland, Maine-based Northeast Bank, the 11th largest PPP lender in terms of dollar value as of Feb. 28.

Other technology companies seeing a surge in business due to PPP include Numerated, which provides a commercial loan platform for banks. Numerated processed nearly 300,000 PPP loans for more than 100 U.S. lenders, totaling $40 billion as of March 1. Cross River Bank, a technology-focused bank in Fort Lee, New Jersey, that works with fintech companies to offer banking services, also rose in the ranks of direct PPP lenders this year. The $11.8 billion bank ranked fifth with $2.5 billion in PPP loans.

Arora says the SBA’s constantly changing documentation, error codes and program rules were a headache for a bank but fit into Biz2Credit’s area of expertise as a technology company. It provided banks with one platform for both PPP origination and loan forgiveness, simplifying the lending process. Given the amount of work involved, Pruis says banks that chose to handle PPP lending on their own platforms have had a tough time, especially in the program’s first round of the loan program. “It was brutal,’’ he says.

Arora says Biz2Credit is perfectly suited for PPP for another reason: Most of its loans go to very small businesses, many of them sole proprietorships or operations with fewer than 20 employees.

These borrowers often don’t have a business banking relationship, pushing them into the arms of online lenders or small banks.

Small businesses have been especially hard hit by the pandemic. The Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey for 2021 found that 53% of respondents in September and October of 2020 thought their revenue for the year would be down by more than 25%. Of the 83% of firms whose revenues had not returned to normal, 30% projected they would be unlikely to survive without additional government assistance.

“This recession has been brutal for small business,’’ Arora says. “It’s a much-worse recession than the last one for small business.”

Top PPP Lenders for 2021 PPP

Rank Lender Name Loans Approved Net Dollars Average Loan Size
1 JP Morgan Chase 81,430 $6,048,741,297 $74,281
2 Bank of America 87,696 $5,339,101,618 $60,882
3 Itria Ventures LLC 165,827 $4,756,975,303 $28,686
4 PNC Bank 28,633 $2,877,088,585 $100,482
5 Cross River Bank 106,086 $2,511,524,537 $23,674
6 M&T Bank 15,507 $2,044,126,456 $131,820
7 Zions Bank 16,593 $1,982,086,510 $119,453
8 U.S. Bank 35,663 $1,914,171,309 $53,674
9 Wells Fargo Bank 44,861 $1,892,379,160 $42,183
10 TD Bank 21,833 $1,863,067,115 $85,333
11 Northeast Bank 17,255 $1,855,213,143 $107,517
12 KeyBank 14,791 $1,708,999,583 $115,543
13 Citizens Bank 26,544 $1,531,712,319 $57,705
14 Customers Bank 54,576 $1,405,437,610 $25,752
15 Fifth Third Bank 14,390 $1,333,769,118 $92,687

Approvals through 2/28/2021. Source: SBA

Five Ways to Challenge Digital Banks

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Over the past several years, financial institutions have experimented with and implemented new technologies to improve efficiency, security and customer experience. Although online banking is currently challenging traditional banking practices in several aspects, there are ways that traditional banks can fight back. Here are a few key offerings of digital banking, along with ways traditional banks can beat them at their own game.

1. Improved service
Digital banks offer customers 24-hour service and the ability to conduct a variety of transactions in their own time. AI-powered chatbots allows customers to ask questions, perform transactions and create accounts through one platform, at any time. This on-demand service appeals to customers as saving time and effort in their banking experience.

However, one of the key missing components of an online banking platform is human interaction, which can be easier and more rewarding than filling out a checklist on a website. Customers can easily convey any special requests or needs. By providing excellent customer service with genuine and knowledgeable human interaction, traditional banks can offer a more complete service than online banks.

2. Heightened security
To keep up with innovative offerings like video chat and digital account operations, online banks can utilize SD-WAN solutions to maintain reliable connectivity and efficiency for their security needs. Solutions such as antivirus and anti-malware programming, firewalls and biometric and/or facial recognition technology provide additional levels of security to protect customer information.

Traditional banks may less susceptible to cybersecurity threats. Despite online banks’ level of security, their fully-digital presence makes them more vulnerable to cyberattacks compared to traditional banks. It may also be much more difficult to regain what has been lost in the event of a data breach, due to the ways cybercriminals can hide.

3. Streamlined services
Digital transformation is all about streamlining and improving operations; the concept of a digital banking solution is no different. Digital bank users can achieve their banking needs through a single platform. In one “visit,” customers can view their balance and recent transactions, transfer money between accounts and pay bills. Some digital banks also have the option to sync accounts with budgeting apps to further manage budgets and spending.

This streamlining allows digital banks to significantly reduce the number of different products and services they offer. By comparison, traditional banks can provide many more services and options to better fit the individual needs of their customers, and make sure they feel important and well looked after.

Moreover, traditional banks should not feel the need to provide all these services in-house. There are plenty of fintech partners they can lean on, with very specialized capabilities in these services, to help diversify their products and services.

4. Cost-effectiveness
There are often various costs associated with banking, both for the institution and the customer. The low overhead of digital banking allows for a significant reduction in cost and fees and may offer lower-cost options for individuals interested in opening multiple accounts.

Reducing costs may also mean reducing services and, at times, customer experiences. There’s no such thing as a free lunch; the less a customer pays, the less they may get. Many community banks offer more products and services, as well as helpful staff and peace of mind for small financial cost.

5. Environmental consciousness
Working to become more environmentally friendly is becoming an important step for all institutions. Digital banks are succeeding in reducing their carbon footprint and overall waste.

Many traditional banks are making great headway in becoming more environmentally friendly, and have the added benefit of making these changes optional. Many of the customer-facing changes can be approved or rejected by the customer, such as electing paperless statements, giving them more control over their banking experience. Digital banks are challenging traditional community banks in many ways. But community banks can leverage the substantial competitive advantages they already possess to continue providing a greater and more comprehensive experience than digital banks.

A Buyers Guide to Small Business Lending Software

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lending-8-7-17.pngIs digitizing your small business lending a priority for your bank? Increased efficiency, profitability, productivity and enhanced customer experience are all reasons why it should be. For example, in most banks the administrative and overhead costs to underwrite a $50,000 loan and a $1 million loan are essentially the same. Wouldn’t it be great to free up your team to focus on the most important thing—the customer—and let the technology take of the rest?

Here are nine questions to ask when you start talking to fintech companies that sell small business lending software:

  1. Is the software able to conform to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards and best practices? According to the American Bankers Association there have been over 244 federal lawsuits since 2015 that have been filed alleging that people with disabilities are denied access to online goods and services in violation of ADA. The Department of Justice, the agency charged with ADA enforcement, has delayed website accessibility regulations until 2018, but can your bank really afford to wait?
  2. Does it improve the borrower and banker experience? It’s not enough to digitize your applications. What your small business lending software must do is improve your current process for everyone by offering a well thought-out and well-designed user experience that’s intuitive, reduces end-to-end time and helps increase profits.
  3. Will it use your bank’s credit policy? Black box credit policies should be a thing of the past but they still show up in loan origination software. Find a technology that respects the bank’s risk profile and reflects its credit criteria and corporate values.
  4. Does it offer an omnichannel application and borrower portal? Borrowers want the ability to start and finish an application on your website any time of day or night, either on their own or with the help of their banker. Look for a technology that doesn’t eliminate the banker-client relationship, but rather, enhances it.
  5. How quickly will it fit in with your current workflow? The goal should be a quick and seamless transition from paper to digital, but sometimes there isn’t a straight line. Perhaps your financial institution desires the ability to digitize the application process but still wants to manually control the underwriting and spreading process. Look for a platform that has the ability to grow with your workflow and is designed in a way that accommodates your approach to using technology.
  6. Are they a partner or a competitor? More and more alternative lenders are starting to see a benefit in partnering with banks. But will you find out later that your ‘partner’ is competing in your own back yard for the same loans you are trying to acquire through them. Find a platform that’s in the business of helping banks, not replacing them.
  7. Does the platform provide actionable analytics? The platform’s analytics must be able to provide banks with insight into their loan program that is almost impossible to track manually. Find a platform that truly maximizes the data collected by, or generated from, the technology to provide rich analytics like pipeline management, process tracking, customer experience feedback and exception tracking. This will enable managers to manage better, sales people to sell more effectively and customers to be more fully served.
  8. What are the fraud detection and prevention resources used to keep you and your customers safe? As your bank offers more digital options, criminals will devise more sophisticated and hard-to-detect fraud methods. Your bank should only seek a technology partner that has security at the top of its priority list.
  9. Will it be easier for borrowers to complete applications, and for bankers to decide on and process applications accurately and efficiently? The goal for most banks wanting to implement a small business loan origination platform is to reduce end-to-end time, increase profits and give both customers and its own staff a better experience. Make sure the software is designed with this in mind. It should be simple and intuitive for perspective borrowers to use, and it should lessen the time bankers have to touch the loan, freeing up both front and back office teams to maximize their productivity.

Your institution is unique, so you’ll need to find a technology partner that celebrates that individuality rather than changes it. Use these questions as a foundation from which you can fully explore all of your options and find the partner that will bring you the most value.

Online Lenders: Finding the Right Dance Partner

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An increasing number of banks are conceding that innovations introduced by online lenders are here to stay, particularly the seamless, fully digital customer experience. Also, online upstarts have grown to understand that unseating the incumbents may well be heavy-going, not the least because of the difficulties of profitably acquiring borrowers. The result is that both sides have opened up to the potential for partnership, viewing one another’s competitive advantages as synergistically linked. We see five types of partnership emerging.

1) Buying loans originated on an alternative lender’s platform
In this option, alternative lenders securitize loans originated on their platform to free up capital to make more loans while removing risk from their balance sheets. Banks then purchase these securitized loans as a way to diversify investments. This type of partnership is among the most prolific in the online small business lending world, with banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and SunTrust buying assets from leading online lenders. The benefits of this option include the ability to delineate the type of assets the bank wants to be exposed to, and potential for a new source of balance sheet growth. However, the downside include may include the difficulty of assessing risk, as alternative lenders are less likely to share details of proprietary underwriting technology. Moreover, the lack of historical data on alternative lenders’ performance means limited access to data on how these investments will fare in a downturn.

2) Routing declined loan applicants to an alternative lender or to an online credit marketplace
Banks decline the majority of customers who apply for a loan. This partnership option allows such banks to find a home for these loans by referring declined borrowers directly to an online lender or credit marketplace like Fundera, which may be more capable of approving the borrower in question. The advantages of this approach include the ability of the bank to provide their customers with access to a wider suite of products through a vetted solution, a reduced need to expand the bank’s credit box and increased revenue in the form of referral fees. Examples of this type of partnership are few and far between in the United States. Thus far, OnDeck has partnerships of this nature with BBVA and Opus Bank. In our view, a big reason why more banks haven’t followed suit is the loss of control over a borrower’s experience, since agreements typically require a full customer handoff to the alternative lender. In addition, regulators have become increasingly reticent to endorse such agreements, with guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. being particularly restrictive.

3) Making the bank’s small business product line available through an online marketplace
Marketplace players, like Fundera, aim to empower borrowers with the tools needed to shop and compare multiple credit products from a curated network of reputable bank and non-bank lenders. They can be natural partners for traditional banks, as they can be lender agnostic, offering banks an opportunity to compete head-to-head with online lenders to acquire customers. Banks can choose to make any and all of their small business product lines (e.g. term loans, SBA loans, lines of credit, credit cards) available. Examples of this include partnerships with Celtic Bank, LiveOak and Direct Capital (a division of CIT Bank) currently have with Fundera. This option allows a bank to explore digital distribution of products within their lending portfolio, as well as the opportunity to acquire a high-intent, fully packaged borrower that comes from outside the bank’s existing footprint. In addition, this option enables banks to offer products only to the customers which meet eligibility criteria set by the bank (e.g., industry, state, credit box). The downsides of this option can be the upfront investment in technology required by banks to integrate with a marketplace lender.

4) Utilizing an alternative lender’s technology to power an online application
In this option, the alternative lender or lending-as-a-service provider powers a digital application, collecting all the application information and documentation that a bank requires to underwrite a small business loan. Capital, however, is still deployed by the bank. Examples of this partnership type include the collaboration between lending solutions provider Fundation and Regions Bank. This improves the usability of a traditional lender’s products by giving business owners the flexibility to apply online. This partnership also provides access to technology that is difficult and costly for a bank to develop. It may also reduce dependency on paper documents while reducing time to complete a loan application. The downsides of this option are that it can require deployment of significant resources for compliance and due diligence.

5) Utilizing an alternative lender’s technology to power an online application, loan underwriting and servicing
In addition to powering a digital application, the alternative lender can provide access to its proprietary technology for pricing, underwriting and servicing. As with option four, however, capital is still deployed by the bank. The example that comes closest to this type of partnership is the partnership between OnDeck and JPMorgan Chase. This option gives a bank access to underwriting technology that may be costly for them to develop on its own. By leveraging this technology, the bank may also be able to address segments of the market that would have been deemed uncreditworthy by its existing, more conventional underwriting process. Banks should only move forward with this option if they trust an alternative lender’s underwriting criteria, and the bank believes that the alternative lender can meet their compliance requirements.

Giving Small Business Borrowers ’True’ Credit

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Small business owners and entrepreneurs are the engine that fuel the global economy. Lending to small businesses has been the heartbeat of the over 5,500 community banks, and it’s also how many of the nations largest banks have prospered.

Yet the market for these loans has become commoditized—or as highly accomplished venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has said, have been “eaten by software.”Why? Because banks still treat small businesses and entrepreneurs like they are individuals applying for a personal loan and not a commercial entity with real economic value.

The problem is the current business data and credit scoring infrastructure that most banks use to underwrite loans was not made for the entrepreneur. It was made for the consumer and does not acknowledge the value of the actual business itself to the entrepreneur.

When entrepreneurs go to a bank for a loan, they are always asked two questions.

What is their credit score?

What is their current income or salary?

Simple credit scoring and current income verification is not enough as it does not fully value the entrepreneur and the businesses’ capacity.

Seventy percent of a business owner’s net worth is tied up in their business, but few banks look at anything beyond the value of the real estate, their credit score and their current income. Sixty-seven percent of all private companies are funded at levels that are actually less than they should be because the value of the underlying business has historically been overlooked.

This traditional approach to small business lending is out of date. Today, because of technology and an infinite amount of data, business owners can plug in information about their company and match it against similar businesses to find out what their business is worth, and then leverage that data for loans, insurance coverage or other financial planning matters. Banks like Univest Corp., insurance companies like Penn Mutual and credit bureaus like Equifax and Experian are starting to use and offer online databases to measure a business’ value not just for loans, but for financial planning and risk scoring.

If you are bank, take advantage of new advancements in big data and apply them to your actual core business. Focus your efforts on what used to be your bread-and-butter customer—the small business owner. But be aware that today’s entrepreneurs know that the lending process has now become democratized and they are only a browser away from a better deal. Change the game. Go further. Inspire the next great wave in lending by giving entrepreneurs and small business owners true credit.