Commercial lending

The Buffalo-based bank said Thursday that the paring of its CRE loan book, which has nearly halved in volume over the last three years, may be near its inflection point.

A number of banks experienced major increases in 7(a) lending activity during SBA's recently completed fiscal year, as program-wide loan volume topped $37 billion for the first time.

BayFirst Financial in St. Petersburg shuttered a national small-dollar 7(a) loan program in August. Now the $2.4 billion institution, which has been one of the nation's most active SBA lenders over the past decade, is making a clean break from the business.

The Florida community bank, which raised $46 million earlier this summer, is moving ahead with its efforts to expand its national solar and renewable energy line of business.

The American Bankers Association's Economic Advisory Committee expects the economy to grow, albeit at a slower pace than it previously anticipated. The group pointed to stubbornly high inflation and a weakening job market.

A Small Business Administration policy enacted during the second Trump administration blocks not only people who are in the country illegally, but also legal temporary residents and even some U.S. citizens, from accessing government-guaranteed loans.

The deal will give the bank $1.1 billion of loans in a new segment of the equipment finance business.

Fintechs are rolling out business financing tools that are packaged as buy now/pay later and earned wage access in the hopes of capturing momentum from the budding consumer finance industries.

The era of borrowers being able to shift assets into subsidiaries outside the reach of creditors is ending, as AI enables lenders to identify and preemptively block such strategies.

As the holiday shopping season approaches, retailers are grappling with how to optimize their inventory and set prices amid higher tariffs. A new Wells Fargo report sheds light on how businesses are adapting.