Why Small Businesses Embrace Alternative Lenders and What Banks Can Do About It
Report Summary
Why Small Businesses Embrace Alternative Lenders and What Banks Can Do About It
Banks and alternative lenders have complementary strengths and weaknesses, and could become components in each other’s ecosystems.
Boston, March 3, 2016 – Alternative lenders have made inroads into U.S. small-business lending in recent years, doubling their outstanding portfolio balances every year since the mid-2000s. The U.S. Treasury estimates that online alternative lenders originated US$5 billion in small-business loans in 2014. While this represents only a small percentage of total small-business loans outstanding, it is important for banks to recognize the growing success of these lenders … and decide what to do about it.
This report examines alternative lenders’ penetration of the small-business space and the key factors driving their success, and it suggests measures banks should take to better work with them or compete against them. It is based primarily on the results of an Aite Group October 2015 online survey of 1,000 U.S.-based businesses generating less than US$20 million in annual revenue.
This report mentions Biz2Credit, CAN Capital, Kabbage, LendingTree, and OnDeck.
This 21-page Impact Note contains 15 figures and three tables. Clients of Aite Group’s Wholesale Banking & Payments service can download this report.