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Sean Murray: Interesting
comments coming out of FTC

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Commissioner Rohit Chopra, about
merchant cash advance companies.

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He said that he wants to "wipe
them out." That today and more

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but first we're gonna go over to
Jonny Fernandez in Manhattan

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with some big news about
Facebook.

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Johny Fernandez: Hey Sean, so
I'm standing right in front of

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the Farley Building just across
the street from Penn Station.

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Now most people know this
building as a major postal

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service hub, but it's now going
to be used by new tenants,

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Facebook. Earlier this month,
Facebook signed the lease for

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730,000 square feet of office
space in the Farley building,

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located in Midtown and built in
1912, it received landmark

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status in 1966. Leasing so much
office space in the city in the

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middle of a pandemic suggests
that Facebook is thinking long

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term. And even if city dwellers
flocked to the suburbs, its

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proximity to Penn Station will
allow it to tap into residents

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that live in New Jersey and Long
Island. It is important to note

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that this lease actually
coincides with the announcement

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of a new Facebook unit called
Facebook Financial. Now the idea

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behind it according to reports
is that it will merge its social

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media platforms with e-commerce.
So things like Instagram,

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Facebook and WhatsApp will now
have a universal in-app payment

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feature. It's important to
remember that Facebook owns

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multiple social apps. Facebook
bought WhatsApp in 2014 and

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Instagram in 2012. And from
where I'm standing, I will say

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it is ironic over the last
several years people have called

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on the postal service to add
some type of financial services

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to consumers. Metaphorically
speaking, Facebook is now

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turning that into a reality.

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Speaker: It's everywhere. Now
it's on your phone, you look up

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and they have a building right
there too. So it's just kind of

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dominating.

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Opportunity is opportunity. If
he's [Zuckerberg] looking to

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turn this into the next Silicon
Valley. I mean, I don't know,

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how do we how do we really stop
it? I mean, we all use Facebook,

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we all use Instagram. We can
complain about it as much as

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possible. But we're using all
the tools.

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They already know so much just
on Facebook data mining, that

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them having access to even more
would be, awful.

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Johny Fernandez: Reporting live
here from the future Facebook

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offices. I'm Johny Fernandez
with deBanked News.

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Sean Murray: Thanks Johny for
sharing that. I liked it.

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Earlier this week, FTC
Commissioner Rohit Chopra made

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some alarming comments in the
NBC interview about merchant

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cash advance companies. When
asked about some of their

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practices, he said, "we started
suing some of them. And I'm

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looking for a systemic solution
that makes sure that they can

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all be wiped out before they do
more damage." I tweeted to

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Commissioner Chopra to find out
if those statements would also

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apply to companies like Shopify
and PayPal, now among the

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largest merchant cash advance
providers in the entire country,

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but I've yet to get a response.
Now his comments were not said

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off the cuff, earlier this
month, in an official prepared

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statement, Commissioner Chopra
said it was a serious question

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as to whether merchant cash
advance products are actually

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closed end installment loans
subject to federal and state

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protections. Now, it seems to
suggest that the end goal is

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really about regulation. It's an
initiative that the FTC embarked

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on late last year. The strong
comments from the commissioner

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are probably about deterring bad
actors. In an interview we

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conducted with FTC attorney Evan
Zullow, we asked if it was

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unusual that an agency normally
viewed as protecting consumers

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would become so focused on
business-to-business

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transactions. Zullow told
deBanked, "we don't think it's

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new or that we're in unchartered
waters." All of which means that

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merchant cash advance companies
should probably start operating

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their companies more like banks.
But how to do that? Well, we

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spoke with one company who
offers an all-in-one software

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solution that is catered towards
credit unions, community banks,

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and even merchant cash advance
companies. It's an all-in-one

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solution that's geared towards
the small business finance

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universe. Sherif Hassan, the CEO
of Capiform, told me all about

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it.

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Sherif Hassan: We're targeting
the folks that are big enough

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where they can feel these pain
points, but aren't so big that

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they have the technology in
house to build out these

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solutions. You'd be surprised
Sean, we could get a cash

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advance company up and running
in less than 30 days. And the

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idea is, they would kind of
institute a champion on their

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side. And it could be the head
of risk or the lead underwriter

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or someone who understands their
credit policy really well. And

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we take them through a
certification program as we're

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going through the build. And
once it's up and running, you'd

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be shocked at how easy it is for
them to modify, or to adjust

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their credit policies. We did a
ton of market research and

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seeing what other other folks
have built and how their

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processes are. And we've really
done our best to kind of pick

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and choose what the best of them
are. So we get compliments as as

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grand as "my God this looks
better than the Chase website"

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and folks are saying, "I can't
believe this only take us 30

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days to get up and running" to
something like you know, first

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show would be you know, "I don't
know this looks great and all

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but I don't know If we can
afford it," and then we'll talk

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about pricing and our pricing is
super competitive.

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Sean Murray: What a cool
product. Thanks for your time.

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Really appreciate it. That's all
today from the studio. I'm Sean

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Murray for deBanked News.