Articles by deBanked Staff
Enova: $1.7B in Business Loans in Q1, New Record, Competition Hasn’t Changed
April 28, 2026“Our SMB business continued to deliver remarkable growth and stable credit as our leading brand presence, scale, and strong competitive position drove 42% year-over-year growth in originations to a record 1.7 billion dollars,” said Enova CEO Steve Cunningham during the Q1 earnings call. “Our SMB portfolio has grown 37% over the past year and remains intentionally well diversified across geographies and industries. In addition, the SMB net charge-off ratio remained in a tight range consistent with the past two years.”
The company indicated that economic signals look strong despite rising gas prices and that they expect the growth in SMB lending to continue.
When Kyle Joseph at Stephens asked Cunningham to size up the competitive environment they face in their sector, Cunningham said that they have the advantages.
Cunningham:
“The SMB market is large, and new business formation over the past five or six years has been really strong if you look at new business applications. Those companies that are a couple of years into their life and have shown staying ability become potential customers. So the market is growing, probably a little faster than the overall consumer market. Regarding our presence, brand, scale, and capabilities, our set of competitors has not really changed much over time, and we believe we have a lot of advantages. It is a great setup: a large, growing market and competitive advantages that allow us to be selective and generate growth that creates strong returns for us and our shareholders.”
How LendingClub (Happen Bank) Plans to Handle Customers Using AI Agents To Seek Out a Loan vs. Search Engines Like Google
April 28, 2026During LendingClub’s Q1 earnings call, stock analyst David Scharf asked LendingClub CEO Scott Sanborn how they’re approaching investments in AI-type search vs. traditional. Scharf used this example for context:
Scharf:
…specifically, I was just typing in how do I get a $10,000 personal loan and it just gives you the typical Google paid search listing of whoever shows up, then I said what’s the best $10,000 loan for me and it did the typical NERDWallet shows up. But going forward, when somebody types in, a year from now, what’s the best $15,000 personal loan for me into either Chat or Claude, can you talk us through either some of the risks or opportunities you see in terms of these AI engines making more qualitative assessments and not just traditional search assessments?
Sanborn’s excerpted response:
So it’s a great question. And while it is a buzzword, it is also — that does not take away from the fact that the changes underway are very real, and we are pursuing them, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, across really all departments and all aspects of the company.
[…]
So inertia is really the thing we’re trying to overcome. So if the agents evolve not only to replace Google search, but potentially to act on behalf of consumers, we think we’re a net beneficiary. But you’re right, it is as a percentage of web traffic right now, it is quite small. That said, it is high intent. And so as that percentage grows, we need to be there for it.
All of the protocols are not established exactly what the — as I’m sure you know, there are many, many, many firms that are engineering themselves around how to optimize for Google’s ever-changing algorithm that same thing will be true for agentic search, and we are going to be going after that the same way we will sort of core organic search and think we’re set to benefit. Right now, that means likely increasing the amount of content we produce to get out there. We’re already in the site. We’re obviously in the places you mentioned. We’re in NerdWallet Best Of, I think, on both sides of our balance sheet. So we’re already there.
But we need to be getting some of our content out on our own to help with that. So we’re pushing behind that throughout this year. That’s definitely on our plan.
LendingClub previously announced that it is rebranding to Happen Bank.
Bill Proposed to Amend CFPB’S Small Business Data Collection Rule
April 27, 2026
A simple bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to amend the CFPB’s small business data collection rules. The 888-page rulebook has been undergoing an internal reconfiguration by the CFPB itself but in this instance members of Congress are attempting to make minor changes through legislation.
These proposed changes are as follows:
• Amend the definition of small business to mean a business that does $1 million a year in revenue versus the $5 million defined in the last iteration of the rules.
• Amend covered financial institutions as ones that do at least 500 credit transactions a year versus the 100 transaction threshold defined in the last iteration of the rules.
This bill is called the “Small Lenders Exempt from New Data and Excessive Reporting Act.”
The small business lending data collection rules drafted by the CFPB have been the subject of controversy since 2010 when the law requiring the agency collect small business loan data was first passed. Sixteen years later there has still been much disagreement as to what was actually intended to be collected, from whom it is to be collected from, the manner in which this collection takes place, and what can be done with the data itself once it’s in the agency’s hands. The agency is likely to release an amended version of the rules sometime this year.
Book Your Room at Broker Fair Before The Deadline
April 24, 2026
The special discounted room rate for Broker Fair 2026 ends soon. If you’re coming from outside of New York City, we’ve got a special room rate at INK 48. It’s merely a hop, skip, and a jump from the event’s official venue at The Glasshouse.
PLUS, Broker Fair’s pre-show party will be taking place on the rooftop of INK 48 at Hudson Vu.
229 Companies Now Registered as Sales-Based Financing Providers in Virginia
April 20, 2026Almost four years since Virginia’s sales-based financing provider law went into effect, the state now lists 229 registered parties. That’s an increase of only 27 companies since last year.
Both funders and brokers are required to be registered if they intend to transact with Virginia-based merchants, subject to some exceptions. Registrants on the list include some big recognizable names like eBay Commerce, First Data Merchant Services, PayPal, and Wal-Mart.com USA, but dozens of smaller known MCA broker shops also appear.
If you are a broker or funder in MCA and are not registered to do deals with Virginia-based merchants, you should contact a knowledgeable industry attorney to get set up right away. The law went into effect in 2022.
Don’t Get Sued in Merchant Cash Advance. Christopher Murray to Speak at Broker Fair 2026
April 16, 2026
The highly acclaimed industry attorney Christopher Murray will be speaking at Broker Fair on June 1 in New York City for a special solo session. As one of the most seasoned litigators in MCA, Murray stands to bring especially unique insights.
Work in MCA? You won’t want to miss this! REGISTER HERE!
Christopher Murray’s bio:
Christopher Murray is a graduate of SUNY Buffalo Law School (JD, cum laude) and University of Delaware (BA). He is admitted to practice law in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Murray is a founding member of the Alternative Finance Bar Association and a member of its board of directors. Prior to founding Murray Legal, PLLC, he represented commercial creditors at two prominent boutique commercial litigation firms in New York.
Mr. Murray has litigated over one hundred cases on behalf of non-bank commercial finance companies. Mr. Murray regularly represents clients with regard to loans, factoring, receivables purchases and merchant cash advance transactions. He is also an experienced appellate litigator, having litigated and defended against multiple appeals in state and federal courts.
Mr. Murray regularly represents: commercial clients in litigation, mediation, and arbitration; receivables purchasers and commercial lenders against breach of contract, fraud, UDAAP, and RICO claims; merchant cash advance clients pursuing breach of contract claims; claims against former employees and contractors for breach of non-compete and non-solicitation agreements; and creditors in actions and special proceedings challenging collections and judgment enforcement. Mr. Murray also represents clients in various corporate and regulatory matters.
Satoshi Nakamoto is “Found”… Again
April 15, 2026
Since deBanked last entered its final best guess for whom Satoshi Nakamoto the creator of Bitcoin might be (Jack Dorsey), the New York Times has since published their own theory based on detective work conducted by John Carreyrou, the reporter that exposed the Theranos fraud with Elizabeth Holmes. Carreyrou says that Satoshi is probably Adam Back, the Bitcoin developer best known for being cited in Satoshi’s original 2008 research paper. While Carreyrou has said his confidence level hovers between 99-100%, his peers in the same field disagree.
For example, film producer Cullen Hoback, known for exposing the individual behind the QAnon Conspiracy, recently published his own work in an HBO documentary that led him to conclude that Satoshi was actually Bitcoin developer Peter Todd. Meanwhile, investigative reporter William D. Cohan, is releasing a documentary called Finding Satoshi in 7 days that claims it is more comprehensive than either of the others work and will reveal someone entirely different.
And then there is the CEO of Coinbase who has repeatedly said in podcast interviews that he believes Satoshi is the deceased cryptographer Hal Finney.
Sean Murray met with Carreyrou in February 2025 to discuss his Jack Dorsey theory but Carreyrou did not buy into it. On November 19th, 2025, Dorsey was given the opportunity in front of his shareholders and Wall Street analysts to deny the theory but instead sidestepped the question to say that it wasn’t important anymore.
Since all these high profile investigative reporters are confident in their answers and they can’t all be right, our theory that Dorsey, founder of Twitter and Square, and currently the largest originator of online small business loans, is actually Satoshi, continues to survive scrutiny to another day.
Fed: Banks King in Small Business Funding
April 14, 2026“Currently, banks hold roughly $600 billion in business loans that were originated under $1 million,” said Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman. “Banks are the primary financing channel for small business funding.”
Bowman was speaking at a Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) event. She offered impressive stats about banks in small business lending.
“Although large banks are less concentrated in small business lending, they are also a significant source of small business credit,” she said. “As of the second quarter of 2025, the largest banks—those with over $700 billion in assets—provided about 18 percent of business loans below $1 million, and 33 percent of business loans below $100,000.”
Despite this, she acknowledged that credit is still tight and offered ideas for how the Fed could ease capital requirements on banks making small business loans. They are below:
In the standardized approach proposal, the risk weight for corporates would decrease from 100 percent to 95 percent. The proposed changes are currently subject to an open comment period, and we encourage stakeholder feedback on this and other changes.
The Basel III proposal would make three changes. First, for small business loans exceeding $1 million, the proposal would generally reduce the risk weight from 100 percent to 65 percent for small businesses considered to be investment grade by the lending bank. This would free up capital that banks can use to extend additional credit to small businesses. It could also make larger loans more available and more affordable for growing companies that need capital for expansion, equipment purchases, or hiring.
Second, for small business loans less than $1 million, the proposal would generally reduce the risk weight by 25 percentage points—from 100 percent to 75 percent. This more accurately reflects the lower risk of the diversified portfolios of smaller loans.
Third, for small business credit cards specifically, the proposal would provide regulatory capital treatment that is more aligned with the actual risk of those exposures than the current rules, and relying more heavily on repayment history. We are also seeking comment on whether the proposed treatment of unused credit lines appropriately reflects the risk of these exposures.”
