Small business lending

The small businesses that drive the U.S. economy and local economies throughout our nation are being "hung out to dry" by regulators' push for increased capital requirements, according to the head of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.

This week the Small Business Administration followed through with a controversial policy change by granting access to its flagship 7(a) program to three additional nonbank lenders. These new participants vowed to ramp up their small-business lending efforts.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Section 1071 data collection rule challenge will likely not advance past President Joe Biden's desk, and Republicans don't have the votes to overturn his veto.

The movement of cash to money market funds from bank accounts will diminish lenders' ability to finance small and midsize firms, BlackRock Investment Institute said in a new paper. BlackRock and other money managers have spent much of this year readying to fill that void.

The Biden administration's misguided attempt to protect the banking system from itself will reduce credit available to the Americans who need it most.

Camino Financial and Fundation, which are combining, serve distinct slices of the small business market. The deal's architects say it will enable the combined firm to provide more financing options to entrepreneurs, and they argue that now is a good time to lean into small business lending.

With a week left in its 2023 fiscal year, the Small Business Administration has already approved 12% more 7(a) loans than last year. Larger banks were among the biggest gainers as a result, according to the agency's latest data.

A movement is afoot to transfer the job of the Federal Home Loan banks to the Federal Reserve. This would be a disaster for small lenders.

Uplinq, which helps lenders make credit decisions for small business owners using alternative data, already has large global banks among its clientele.

A new state regulation brings consumer-style rules to the small business realm, extending California regulators' ability to crack down on nonbank lenders that engage in questionable practices. Observers believe that it could be a model for other states.

The product, which is both popular and controversial in consumer financial services, is attracting interest from merchants that don't want to pay high interest for a traditional loan.

Many small-business lenders have less than 18 months to figure out how to gather and report on an extensive array of data.

Critics complain a bill sponsored by the leaders of the Senate Small Business Committee would reinstate a moratorium on participation in the SBA's flagship 7(a) program by nondepository lenders. Supporters of the bill argue that widening the program could invite more fraud.

A federal judge has temporarily stopped the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from implementing its small-business data collection rule until after the Supreme Court rules next year on whether the bureau's funding is constitutional.

The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee voted nearly unanimously to advance a bill that would halt a plan by the Small Business Administration to open up some of its loan programs to fintech companies.

Solopreneurs are the new engine of business growth in the U.S., and banks and financial services regulators need to recognize their importance.

Isabella Guzman, the administrator of the Small Business Administration, skipped a congressional hearing called to discuss the wide disparity in the level of fraud calculated by her staff and a parallel examination conducted by SBA's Office of the Inspector General.

A new inspector general report suggests that grifts were more pervasive than has previously been reported. The Small Business Administration, which drew blame in the watchdog report, took issue with the findings.

Lake Trust Credit Union in Brighton, Michigan, works with a development agency in Lansing to provide entrepreneurs with the financial and educational support they need to go it alone.