Bankers should stop thinking of small companies as difficult to serve, Comerica's Brian Haney says; "How does succeeding in small business make the retail bank stronger?"

Small Business Administration lending is an arena where community banks and nonbanks compete favorably with some of the largest U.S. financial institutions. Here are the biggest SBA 7(a) lenders based on the value of approved loans.

But high costs and any downturn in the economy could weigh on lenders and their commercial borrowers in coming months, economists caution.

Flagstar Bank promotes newly hired Jason Birnbaum; Finstar Financial tops $1billion-asset threshold with acquisition of Sitgler; digital platform Bluevine launches checking account for high balances; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.

Banks across the spectrum of size and location serve small businesses — but they all do it differently. At American Banker's Small Biz Banking 2023 conference in Nashville from November 13-15, banks of all sizes will come together to share ideas, learn from experts and hear from bankers in the field who are doing it best. 

Los Angeles-based Lendistry — in less than two years — became the largest Black-run 7(a) lender. Its CEO credits a concerted effort by the Small Business Administration to reach out to minority lenders and businesses, whose participation in the lending program is growing.

The proposal fails to account for the needs of small and medium-size businesses, which depend on banking data connectivity to keep their operations running.

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.

An advocate for retail merchants takes issue with a BankThink article criticizing the Credit Card Competition Act.

A pending new rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on customer data will force banks to improve customer service and be more competitive in their pricing.

The promises made by supporters of the Credit Card Competition Act don't account for all of the ways in which it could actually increase the cost of doing business.

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

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.

The Mer Rouge State Bank in Louisiana and Mission National Bank in San Francisco are among 184 banks to receive $70 million of grants from the Bank Enterprise Award Program, its largest awards ever.

As the United Nations General Assembly convenes in New York to discuss global development, delegates must not overlook the importance of financial services for small businesses in emerging economies.

The ruling comes in a lawsuit New York Attorney General Letitia James filed in 2020, claiming Jonathan Braun and others made thousands of merchant cash advances to small businesses, charged annualized interest that sometimes exceeded 1,000% and defrauded and harassed borrowers. 

Mountain America Credit Union and Lafayette Federal Credit Union are two institutions making concerted efforts to target small-business owners with digital tools.

From hidden fees to misleading marketing, small businesses face too many challenges when making and receiving cross-border payments.

An effort to ensure banking services are available to legal businesses is being undermined by groups trying to rewrite the history of regulatory overreach related to supposed reputational risk.

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