The Coalition for Responsible Business Finance (CRBF) has announced it will join the Innovative Lending Platform Association (ILPA) in efforts to more broadly support lending for small businesses; the ILPA's network is primarily led by existing members, OnDeck, Kabbage and CAN Capital; with the merger of the two organizations, the ILPA will gain representation from the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Small Business Association, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Association for Enterprise Opportunity; the expanded ILPA will provide even greater resources for advancing online small business lending education, advocacy and best practices; the ILPA is most well known for its work on introducing the SMART Box™ comparison tool for small business lenders; with the merger of the two organizations, the ILPA has also developed an updated industry code of ethics, leveraging the work previously done by the CRBF. Source
Commercial credit data sharing scheme (CCDS) is a market solution providing data sharing for alternative lenders in the UK; the CCDS was launched on April 1, 2016 and is now nearing full integration which means the majority of mandated banks have implemented systems to share their data with UK credit agencies; CCDS will provide current account banking data to credit agencies for approximately 98% of small businesses in the UK which is expected to help improve credit underwriting and broaden credit availability. Source
India's CoinTribe has partnered with SMERA Ratings to incorporate a new rating system for its online business lending services; through the partnership CoinTribe will gain access to SMERA's ratings database for micro, small and medium size businesses; CoinTribe plans to integrate the ratings information with its current credit underwriting system for enhanced analytics on business credit loans. Source
Brock Blake from Lendio discusses his insights from LendIt USA 2017; Blake was a moderator for the panel, "How Banks are Coming Back to SME Lending"; from his perspective he believes banks are proactively innovating to develop better online lending solutions for their business customers; this was evident in comments from panelists at JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America who provided examples on how the banks are innovating after a slower adoption phase that included a competitive market analysis. Source
The marketplace lender has extended the maturity of its credit facility with Deutsche Bank to March 2019; the revised terms also add an additional $52 million to the credit facility; in comments regarding the revised terms, Howard Katzenberg, chief financial officer of OnDeck said, "The closing of this transaction reflects a continued ability to execute our financing strategy for 2017, which includes extending debt maturities and creating additional funding capacity for future loan growth." Source
Kabbage has announced the pricing of its first securitization of the year; the portfolio was valued at $525 million and includes small business loans; it is structured in four classes and has received ratings from Kroll Bond Rating Agency with the majority of the portfolio rated A; the deal is expected to close around March 20. Source
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has released data for its February Small Business Optimism Index; the Index shows a decrease to 105.3 from 105.9; the NFIB says that the reading is still one of the highest in 43 years; the lower report for February is primarily due to uncertainty around President Trump's deregulation plans, new healthcare law and tax reform. Source
Jim Rosenthal will join the board of directors at OnDeck; he was previously the chief operating officer at Morgan Stanley and also served as chairman and CEO; according to OnDeck's CEO Noah Breslow: "Jim is a supremely talented executive whose vision contributed greatly to the success of Morgan Stanley and other organizations. His experience as an innovator at the intersection of technology and financial services, combined with his comprehensive knowledge of financial institutions, will add great value to OnDeck as we build on our leadership as the nation's largest online lender to small businesses." Source
New Zealand-based Xero provides cloud-based accounting software for small and medium size businesses; it has now announced new agreements to integrate its software with working capital financing platforms MarketInvoice, iwoca and DueCourse; the business integrations will help to better facilitate invoice finance lending and working capital credit for businesses using Xero. Source
Banks have previously been known for their slow service in providing small business loans however the success of small business online lenders is helping to increase their interest and banking models; with banks expected to begin broadening personal and business lending in the current environment, small businesses appear to provide the best market opportunity; American Banker details some specific areas where banks can upgrade their technology for better competitive positioning in the small business lending market including: online applications, electronic documentation, increased online disclosure and optimized lending processes based on targeted borrowers. Source