Commercial lending

First Internet CEO David Becker used to be dismissive of the Small Business Administration. But after getting to know some of the borrowers during the pandemic — and after his bank collected hefty fees from selling 7(a) loans — he's become a convert.

Providing incentives for banks to transition legacy loan contracts from the London interbank offered rate to the new Secured Overnight Financing Rate, as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget does, is a gift to megabanks and limits pricing options for smaller lenders.

By an overwhelming majority, the House approved a two-month extension of the Paycheck Protection Program, which still has almost $93 billion left to distribute.

DLP Bancshares, an affiliate of DLP Real Estate Capital, plans to use the acquisition to create a national platform for commercial real estate and warehouse loans.

Government relief programs and lenders’ forbearance have kept U.S. small businesses from defaulting on their debt en masse as revenue slumped during the pandemic crisis, according to a new analysis.

There are ways to remove bad actors from the industry — such as reinstating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s payday lending rule and banning certain fees and collection practices — without hindering consumers’ access to emergency credit.

Acquisition-hungry Stearns Bank has been fielding so many calls from would-be sellers that it has brought in a merger specialist to sort through them.

M&T Bank, Citizens Financial and Huntington Bancshares are playing it safe even as some of their counterparts have started to trim allowances in response to government stimulus efforts and rapid progress in the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine.

Legislators expressed concerns that thousands of pending applications are stuck in limbo just weeks before the Small Business Administration is legally required to stop accepting them.

Lenders are preparing scores of Paycheck Protection Program applications to secure approval from the Small Business Administration by March 31, but unresolved error codes continue to hinder their efforts.