David Smith

The media has been giving banks a lot of bad press for how the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was handled. While small businesses are scrambling to obtain emergency funding, the COVID-19 crisis has exposed some of the shortcomings of the big bank system. Undoubtedly the PPP has its problems, but there are nuggets of success. This is the story and timeline of a s…

Although we are still in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis, we need to be looking forward and preparing for the economic recovery. While the net effects of COVID-19 have yet to be fully realized, we can assume that it will forever change the way many businesses interact with their customers. Even before the Coronavirus outbreak, a digital transformation was alrea…

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to develop, we are already seeing some very troubling signs in the economy. Unemployment claims continue to spike as the crisis hammers away at the U.S. economy. Suddenly, we have millions of people who are unexpectedly out of a job, with the leisure and hospitality industry being hit the hardest. Many small businesses are clos…

Today we find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic that has impacted almost everyone worldwide. The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has resulted in worldwide school and business closures, government-ordered lockdowns, and a sudden shortage of certain household goods. Things are changing by the minute and there’s not yet enough reliable data to make any official conclu…

Currently, small banks and credit unions only have 9% of all small business loans under $100,000. The room for expansion is extensive and I don’t think it will take extraordinary measures in order to increase that market share significantly.  I would like to examine what I think ‘small banks’ (community banks, regional banks, and credit unions) can do to capture…

There is an art to small business and commercial and industrial (C&I) lending. Underwriters across the financial spectrum of banks, credit unions, and independents do a great job of mitigating risk when dealing with large, complex lending requests. Medium and large dollar lending is an art form and that process requires a lot of data in order to make that decisio…

Small business credit access grew in 2018 and with modifications to the Small Business Administration (SBA) rules for more streamlined processing, access is predicted to grow. However, untapped opportunities for growth remain for startups and minority owned businesses as suggested in SBA research. What are the funding options for these groups that the SBA is offering…