It’s never a bad thing to hear that small business borrowing is up. Even with the uncertainty surrounding the new White House administration and the direction we’re headed, there are signs that small business borrowing will increase further this year, which will drive economic gains across the board. Click here to read more.
President Trump’s first executive action sends shock waves through the financial industry. By suspending the 0.25 percentage point premium rate cut for Federal Housing Administration-backed loans, Trump’s first executive action directly affects the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, which is designed to bail out lenders if borrowers default on their mortgages. This was a surprising change since most expected the new president’s first actions to be focused on immigration and health care. Click here to read more.
The new FCC Chairman is on our side. On June 27, 2003, the FTC opened the National Do Not Call Registry to protect consumers from telemarketers and excessive robocalls. Since then, some ambulance-chasing lawyers (or “serial TCPA plaintiffs”) have tried to take advantage of the system, making business to consumer telemarketing a bit of a challenge. Some say the challenge is leaking over to the B2B sector, but with the new FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, we should expect some smooth sailing ahead. He has acknowledged the presence of the lawyers who are taking advantage of the system and has indicated his intent to protect businesses conducting necessary marketing efforts. Click here for more details.
Trump freezes regulations and the Wild, Wild West is back!
Since the election, the alternative lending space has been eager to see how the new President of the United States will handle regulations on the industry. With Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank, the CFPB was soon to place strong regulations on lenders and require them to submit detailed information on business loan applications that, some thought, could be used in a malicious manner.
Within the first week of the new presidency, President Trump freezes regulations, keeping the CFPB out of the small business finance space for now and possibly forever. Click here to read more.
Times are changing. Getting a loan isn’t about walking down to your local bank anymore. With strict bank regulations, it’s likely you won’t be approved anyway unless you have stellar credit and a nice looking bank account. The most common way business owners are looking for loans is by going online – isn’t that how we find everything these days? The Fintech world is taking the lending world by storm. Joe Shmo in Maine goes online to LendingClub’s website and quickly gets a $1000 loan through it’s affiliate in Utah…our world is connected and this means big changes in the financial arena. Click here to read more.
Should the banks fear what’s happening in the FinTech arena? What is the future of big banks in this ever-changing, technology-driven world of financial services? Are we really moving towards a full service “bank in an app?” Click here to see if banks are suffering from alternative loan options.
Photo Credit: Freds
Ever wonder how Silicon Valley is influencing FinTech in Washington? How much influence could Google, Apple, Amazon, PayPal, and Intuit have when they combine forces? Probably a significant amount and they are coming together in an effort to use technology to improve the FinTech world. This includes increasing access to loans by small businesses – never a bad thing. Click here to read about Silicon Valley’s latest push to lobby for FinTech.
Photo Credit: Mval
“God bless the online lenders”…How nice to hear some appreciation for our industry from Congressman David Scott. The fact is that businesses need loans and banks aren’t lending to most of the companies who need it most. So, yes, our industry is crucial for the economy but it’s attracting much attention from congress and is facing some unappealing regulations. Click here to read more.
Photo By: Belka
Right now, venture capital is hot and interest has been focused on Fintech. The optimism in the market has encouraged investors to invest and with the lucrative IPOs of companies like LendingClub and OnDeck, it’s obvious Fintech is showing returns – but is this investment in Fintech just a bubble? Click here to read more.
There has been an unfortunate standstill in lending to small businesses since the 2008 economic crisis. Since 99.7% of businesses in the US are considered small businesses, this is a problem. Hence, the up-rise of the alternative lending world. How does the future of small business lending look? Click here to find out if there are more small business loans in our future.
