Small business

Funding Circle has formed a partnership with H&R Block to provide loans to the tax preparation firm’s small-business customers.

What does a small bank do when a much larger bank encroaches on its home turf?

The credit union regulator received nearly 3,100 comment letters tied to plans to loosen restrictions on business lending, with a vast majority opposing any changes.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including demands for more transparency on banks' small-business lending and why the average American should care about the GSE investors lawsuit.

Summit State Bank in Santa Rosa, Calif., has exited the Small Business Lending Fund.

Suncrest Bank is hoping that its team of experienced executives, combined with organic growth and acquisitions, will help more than double its assets in the next few years.

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finishes regulations dealing with mortgage data reporting, a similar set of requirements for small business loans is waiting in the wings.

In a rapidly growing market outside the purview of the Truth in Lending Act or state usury caps, online lenders' rates and fees can be next to impossible to compare.

Bank of the West in San Francisco has hired three development officers for Small Business Administration loans.

FirstMerit in Akron, Ohio, has reached an agreement with Paychex to provide payroll-processing services.

Marketplace lenders and other alternative finance companiesshould be perceived not as a threat, but rather as a group of pioneers opening up opportunities for those banks that elect to buy, build or partner in this market.

The global loan platforms present an extreme example of the ongoing clash between the fast-moving financial technology sphere and the staid world of financial regulation.

As the Small Business Administration's flagship 7(a) loan program breaks records, its other loan program stagnates. Advocates for so-called 504 loans hope a drive to permit CRE refinancing will inject new life.

A federal judge has overturned a New York City law that would have required banks to make new disclosures regarding their investments in local communities.

Lending Club and Funding Circle are among the firms pledging to adhere to a range of self-imposed standards in small-business lending.

The New York Bankers Association is challenging the legality of a local law that is designed to cajole banks into making larger investments in poorer communities. The outcome could be an important precedent in relation to similar laws in other cities.

BB&T will dismiss most of a 21-person small business lending group who had been employed by Susquehanna Bancshares.

Heavier second-quarter marketing expenses at OnDeck Capital highlight a concern throughout the marketplace lending industry: the high cost of customer acquisition as competition from banks and nonbank startups heats up.

The small-business lender's shift 18 months ago to a marketplace player that sells loans to investors paid off handsomely in the second quarter.

Marlin Business Bank has launched a new site to compete with alternative lenders such as OnDeck and Kabbage, which specialize in providing quick and convenient access to small-business credit.