Hillary Clinton Wants to Harness the Potential of “Online Lending Platforms”

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton acknowledged online lending on Tuesday when she published her plan to help small businesses. “Small businesses owners cite insufficient access to capital as a primary inhibitor to starting, growing, and sustaining a small business,” she asserted in a fact sheet posted to her website.

To solve that dilemma, she wants to:

• Harness the potential of online lending platforms and work to safeguard against unfair and deceptive lending practices.
• Streamline regulation and cut red tape for community banks and credit unions while defending the new rules on Wall Street.
• Give the SBA administrator the authority to continue providing 7(a) loan guarantees to small businesses if demand is higher than the yearly cap, helping even more small businesses get affordable bank loans.
• Etc.

The WSJ and other media outlets have claimed Clinton’s reference to online lending means “marketplace lending” but that appears to be an exaggeration. The two are not synonymous. One company for example that just secured a $100 million credit facility from Goldman Sachs to make more loans online is not a marketplace, but rather a balance sheet lender that helps banks make loans to their clients.

Hillary Clinton’s plan for small business growth is focused on community banks, the SBA and tax incentives. Fintech and marketplaces were not mentioned. You can read it here.

Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.