More Small Businesses Seeking Merchant Cash Advances Than Factoring

Seven percent of small employer firms in the US that applied for financing in 2017 applied for a merchant cash advance, the latest report by the Federal Reserve shows, while only 4% applied for factoring. Small employer owned firms were defined as businesses that have 1 to 499 full-or part-time employees. 69% of those surveyed generated less than $1 million in revenue last year. That revenue demographic may be on the low end for the factoring industry though. Factoring’s popularity in that demographic, however, decreased in 2017, according to the report. The 4% figure of small businesses that applied for factoring in 2017 was down from 7% in 2016.

Auto and equipment loans had the highest approval rates among all financing options available to small businesses, at 82%. Merchant cash advances followed behind them at 79%. Lines of credit and business loans carried approval rates of 69% and 62% respectively. SBA loans came in at 54%.

When it comes to satisfaction, online lenders such as Lending Club, OnDeck, CAN Capital, and PayPal, have markedly improved over time, the report shows. The net satisfaction score of online lenders has increased from 19% in 2015 to 35% in 2017.

On transparency, online lenders rank at about the same level as large banks, though applicants were more likely to be dissatisfied with the interest rates of an online lender and the long and difficult application process with a large bank.

You can download the full report 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.