Ron Shevlin takes a deep dive into the new small business lending partnership announced last week between Amazon and Goldman Sachs; Amazon merchants will now be able to access a credit line from Goldman Sachs; one interesting point that Shevlin notes is that Goldman Sachs will be able to cherry pick the businesses on Amazon who will be eligible to receive this deal, meaning their cost of customer acquisition will be close to zero; he argues that banks should be paying attention to this partnership but most will likely ignore the four major issues that this deal highlights: 1) banks should diversify their loan portfolios, 2) Goldman Sachs will be creating a completely digital and real time underwriting process, 3) this is another example of embedded finance, a new trend gaining momentum, 4) banks should be doing more for small business. Forbes
