Articles by deBanked Staff
The 2026 Coleman SBA Lending Awards Recap
March 24, 2026Coleman’s 2026 SBA Lender Professional Awards ceremony took place last week in Miami at the corporate headquarters of Banesco. Bob Coleman, the organizer of the event and founder of the Coleman Report, was the host. The annual Coleman Awards first debuted in 2025. The full list of winners from 2026 can be viewed here.
Among the keynote speakers were NewtekOne CEO Barry Sloane and iBusiness CEO Justin Levy. Sean Murray of deBanked won an award for SBA Best Use of Media. The event was well attended.
NACLB Conference Canceled
March 24, 2026A company organizing an event under the NACLB conference brand has decided not to go through with it. Initially they had planned to host a conference in Florida this coming June using the NACLB name that convicted felon Kris Roglieri had previously created. The company acquired the rights to that name through Roglieri’s personal bankruptcy proceedings while all the other assets of the original conference were returned to Roglieri.
“After careful evaluation, we’ve made the decision to pause and not move forward with the NACLB Conference in 2026,” the new NACLB website says. “If we cannot ensure a highly positive experience and meaningful value for all participants, it’s important that we take the responsible approach.”
The website says that sponsors and registered attendees will receive a refund.
Upstart: Humans are not very good at underwriting loans so AI won’t be either
March 23, 2026
“…unfortunately, humans have never really been very good at precisely underwriting loans and figuring out the cash flows they’re going to produce for the next 5 years,” said Upstart CEO Paul Gu during the company’s Q4 earnings call in response to an analyst’s question. “That’s something that has always been solved as a big math problem.”
Upstart’s innovative consumer credit models preceded the dawn of modern-day LLMs. It has been one of their defining features. Underwriting on their part is a combination of the best data access and math. Because of that, they do not view AI as a threat because AI is only great at replacing what humans are good at and underwriting is not one of those things.
“I mean the simple answer is just that a lot of the advances in AI are really good for work that humans are naturally good at,” said Gu.
Gu used an example of a HELOC in which human processors have to go through process of securing and perfecting a lien, checking property records, etc. “…like a lot of that stuff is a mess in a human way and traditionally comes with very high operations cost because you have a lot of people that are checking to make sure things are right,” Gu said. “Those are actually the perfect problem to throw sort of LLM-style AI against.”
When it comes to AI benefitting their business, that’s how Upstart is approaching it.
“…It’s really important to just remember that the LLM models coming from Anthropic or OpenAI or any of the others, Gemini, they are really good at solving problems that humans are good at solving and they can do it at scale. They can work 24/7. You can spin up 100 of them in parallel and have them work. But no matter how many humans you have, you don’t want that army of humans underwriting loans for you,” Gu said.
Mayor Mamdani: Merchants Should Get Revenue-Based Loans
March 19, 2026
New York City Mayor Mamdani has come out in favor of revenue-based financing. As part of a promotional video for the NYC Future Fund, a government-supported low interest loan program, the touted structural benefit of the program is the fact that the loans are repaid by a percentage of revenue rather than fixed payments.
“Unlike a traditional term loan, a revenue-based loan enables better cash flow management as principal repayments are based on a percentage of monthly revenue instead of fixed payments,” the Fund’s website says. “When revenue is higher, payments increase, when revenue is lower, payments decrease.”
“We’re building a fairer economy for the entrepreneurs that support our neighborhoods,” Mamdani says in the video alongside Department of Small Business Services (SBS) Commissioner Kenny Minaya.
Compared to previous iterations of the program which took a flat 9.5% of a merchant’s revenue, this new one will take only as low as 2 percent of monthly revenue, depending on loan size and business needs.
Commissioner Minaya says that revenue-based financing is better because it accounts for seasonality in sales like an ice cream shop that may have slower business in the winter.
The NYC Future Fund is a public-private partnership between the City of New York and local Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), including Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF), Accompany Capital, Grow America and Pursuit, to support long-term growth for small business owners.
According to a press release by the city, Mayor Mamdani took the lead on launching this $80M fund for small businesses.
New York City is simply the latest in a series of government-led initiatives to promote and expand revenue-based financing.
Fintech Mortgage Lending Platform Integrates With ChatGPT
March 17, 2026“Can you underwrite this loan?”
That’s an example offered by Better, a fintech mortgage lending platform, in its preview of how its new AI underwriting system can be used conversationally in a chat box. According to the announcement, up to 95% of mortgage applications can be approved instantly using the technology which is geared toward lenders. To use it, companies need only download the app into ChatGPT.
“The mortgage industry is riddled with inefficiencies that hurt consumers, as well as the loan officers and lenders who serve them,” the company said in an announcement. “Big mortgage aggregators in the broker and correspondent channel charge what is essentially a 1-2% tax on each loan just to underwrite a mortgage and deliver it to an institutional investor. That ends now,” said Leah Price, General Manager of Tinman AI Platform. “Loan officer teams and banks can simply log into their ChatGPT Enterprise account, download the Tinman AI credit decision engine app, connect their guidelines, pricing, and CRM to process, underwrite, and fulfill loans nearly instantly; passing thousands of dollars in savings to consumers.”
AI underwriting is being strongly considered in consumer lending but has not gained much traction in small business lending to-date.
Judge Orders Accused Scammer Saul Shalev to Remain in Jail During Trial
March 13, 2026Saul Shalev, the individual accused of masterminding the small business finance industry’s long running mysterious fraud, had his motion to be released on home confinement while awaiting trial denied.
“As I explained on the record at the hearing, the following factors weighed in favor of Shalev’s detention: Shalev has previously fled the country when facing lesser charges in 2019, suggesting he may have more incentive to do so in this case, given the more serious penalties he faces. Although Shalev has strong family ties to New York, those ties were insufficient to keep him from fleeing the country previously, and insufficient to induce his return for more than six years. Moreover, Shalev did not return of his own volition but was apprehended on a vacation in Spain. At the time of his arrest in Spain, Shalev maintained an expensive apartment in Dubai. It does not appear that Shalev was employed after 2021. Shalev has outstanding warrants in New York and New Jersey, a history of failing to appear in court, and a history of actions to evade law enforcement. In addition, the criminal complaint and affidavit in this case, along with further evidence obtained at the time of arrest, suggest strong evidence supporting the charged offenses in this case.
Under these circumstances, I concluded that the significant bond package proposed by Shalev, along with conditions including GPS monitoring and home incarceration, are simply insufficient to reasonably assure that Shalev will appear at trial.”
TomoCredit Sues Fintech Journalist
March 10, 2026TomoCredit, a company that identifies itself as “a software company providing a suite of software solutions designed to support financial literacy,” has filed a lawsuit against a fintech journalist named Jason Mikula for defamation and libel. Mikula operates Business Fintech Weekly, a widely read newsletter in the fintech space. TomoCredit alleges it has suffered damages as a result of statements that Mikula published online about the company.
Mikula shared news of the lawsuit online.
TomoCredit is also facing a lawsuit of its own. Two months ago, a class action lawsuit alleged the company had engaged in negligent misrepresentation and other claims related to its business.
California Bill Asserts Businesses Generating Up to $18 Million/Year in Sales Need Consumer Protections
March 10, 2026California’s AB2116 is proposing to amend the state’s Consumer Financial Protection Law and declare that small businesses generating less than $18 million a year in revenue be considered a consumer for the purpose of consumer financial protections.
“Small business” means a business entity organized for profit with annual gross receipts of no more than sixteen million dollars ($16,000,000) or the annual gross receipt level as biennially adjusted by the Department of General Services in accordance with Section 14837 of the Government Code, whichever is greater.-AB2116
The DGS alternative, when applied to the “whichever is greater” test, currently sits at $18 million, making that the current applicable baseline for what is small.
“Small business owners are often similarly situated as consumers with regards to their sophistication and bargaining power relative to providers of financial services and products,” the bill says. “Many of the rationales supporting legal protections for consumers apply also to small business owners. Small businesses have a better chance to survive and grow if they are able to access safe and effective financial products and are protected from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices when accessing financial products and services.”
For comparison’s sake, deBanked tracked one online small business lender that originated $200 million in business loans that generated just $14.3M in revenue. Per the bill, this lender would also be presumed an unsophisticated consumer that is unable to bargain on financial service products without consumer protections.
