Small business

The best commercial lenders take enough interest in their clients to speak up when they see credit as not serving the long-term success of a company.

Washington Federal is the latest bank to partner with a tech company in an effort to streamline online loan applications.

Small-business owners' optimism about the economy is dwindling, which casts a dark cloud over banks' lending efforts, according to a new survey conducted by Wells Fargo and Gallup.

Ex-banker Frank Rotman, now a venture capitalist who focuses on marketplace lending, has a unique vantage point on the competition for small-business loans between banks and Web-based upstarts, as well as on both sides' strengths and weaknesses.

Hours after Jamie Dimon alluded to the budding partnership, the banking giant and marketplace lender went public with their plans to launch an online lending platform in 2016.

The Portland, Ore., company is pitching its technology as a way for banks to enter digital lending without sacrificing their relationships with customers.

The online loan broker Fundera has published information about the interest rates paid by customers of its website, the latest development in a debate about transparency of the cost of credit provided by alternative lenders.

A joint venture formed by a regional credit union trade group and a loan servicer has a simple mission: to help small credit unions that lack expertise in SBA lending jump into the booming 7(a) market.

The top Democrat on the House Small Business Committee is looking into what regulators are doing to protect small-business borrowers who use online lenders.

The relevant question is no longer whether new regulations will come for the fast-growing industry, but what form they should take.