Nearly half of all small-business owners — and higher percentages of minority entrepreneurs — said in a new survey that they aren’t sure they could come up with the funds to cover an emergency $5,000 business expense. But the results also suggest that the Paycheck Protection Program may have led to more trust in the Small Business Administration.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects farm profits to drop by 8% this year due to multiple factors, creating credit quality questions for ag banks.

Over the past year, BofA has launched or enhanced a slew of technology-based features for business clients of all sizes, from a “start a business” microsite to cash-flow forecasting.

After failing to win funding for a direct-lending program last year, Small Business Administration chief Isabella Casillas Guzman says the agency continues to study the option because banks and credit unions are making fewer small-dollar 7(a) loans than several years ago.

Banks need to advocate for the advancement of women-owned small businesses. Our economic diversity depends on it.

Lenders don't oppose CFPB data collection for small-business loans but favor changes that would minimize unintended consequences for borrowers, a Consumer Bankers Association official writes.

The Columbus, Ohio, bank, which already makes more loans than any other lender in the Small Business Administration's flagship program, is testing a plan to offer them outside of its Midwestern footprint.

The Georgia bank warns that the one-two punch of rising inflation and supply-chain issues on its smaller commercial customers makes that asset class “something we would watch” for potential losses.

California and New York were the first states to require the disclosure of certain pricing information to small-business borrowers. But as Utah, Virginia and other states add regulations for nonbank lenders, a fault line has emerged over the use of annual percentage rates.

Baselane, which helps property owners manage bookkeeping and collect rent, has created a banking unit that offers checking accounts and lets landlords establish subaccounts for such needs as saving for remodels or setting aside security deposits.

Newtek, the No. 2 originator of Small Business Administration 7(a) loans, is buying a single-branch bank in New York. The news sent its stock price tumbling as shareholders revolted, but CEO Barry Sloane is staying the course.

Credit unions and banks need to ask themselves if they're finding ways to say "yes" to consumers who too often hear "no" from mainstream institutions. Otherwise, they perpetuate a system that excludes the poor and people of color and drive them toward nonbanks, said Pablo DeFilippi of Inclusiv Network and other experts.

Last year, just 30% of small-business owners received the total funding they were seeking, down from 51% just two years earlier, according to a new Federal Reserve survey. The findings suggest that two years into the pandemic, banks are having a difficult time assessing risk.

The Small Business Administration had to stop 504 lending for several weeks in September after it reached its fiscal 2021 funding cap. Bankers worry that it will shut down again this year — as early as June.

Community bankers are excited that the Federal Reserve is poised to raise interest rates, which would make loans more profitable — unless rates rise so much they suppress demand.

The Pennsylvania bank is working with the data provider Enigma and Capital One on a platform they are hoping other banks will use. The technology handles all aspects of the loans and provides data and analytics on borrowers.

There was an estimated $80 billion of fraud in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which the Small Business Administration managed on its own. Republicans argue that's evidence the agency is unsuited to make direct loans, as the White House wants it to do.

The companies will use funding obtained from private investors to develop or expand products that help business owners send and receive money more quickly and manage their operations.

Hundreds of bankers and credit union executives are seeking exemptions and changes to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal to collect race, ethnicity and gender information about small-business borrowers that they describe as burdensome and unworkable.

Both traditional financial institutions and neobanks — including NorthOne, Novo and BMO Harris Bank — are developing technology to meet the needs of younger small-business owners.