Business Lending
Over Half of Small Businesses Had Unmet Funding Needs
February 8, 2021The Federal Reserve’s analysis of overall funding efforts for all small businesses demonstrates a market of unmet financial needs. In 2020, a total of 47% of firms met their funding needs, while the other half (53%) still needed capital.
23% of firms saw a “financing shortfall.” They were partially approved but still needed more funds. The other 30% have unmet funding needs because they never applied according to the survey- they’re scared of debt, risk-averse, or don’t meet requirements.
Those that did not apply for funds would have if they were not discouraged by weak sales (44%), insufficient collateral (41%), low credit (33%), and too much debt already (36%).
83% of companies used a bank or small bank as their primary financial service provider, while only 11% said an online lender or fintech was their primary.
Meanwhile, in the funding world, MCAs were only sought by 8% of all funding applicants last year, compared to 89% of firms applying for a loan or line of credit.
Most firms that went for an MCA went with a bank. 85% percent of firms that applied for a loan, credit, or cash advance used a large or small bank. In contrast, only 20% of firms applied to an online lender, falling from 33% since last year.
42% of firms that worked with online lenders or fintech companies were dissatisfied with support during the pandemic. Comparatively, firms that did receive some funding from an online lender were far happier: only 18% were dissatisfied.
Forty-Four Percent of Small Businesses Were More Than $100,000 in Debt in 2020
February 5, 2021
Fifty-three percent of firms expected total sales revenues for 2020 to be down by more than twenty-five percent because of the pandemic, according to the latest small business survey published by the Federal Reserve. Eighty-eight percent of firms indicated that sales had still not returned to normal.
Of those hurt by shutdowns, supply chain troubles, and government shutdowns, 26% percent closed temporarily, fifty-six percent reduced their operations, and 48% percent modified their operations.
Fifty-seven percent of firms characterized their financial condition as “fair” or “poor.”
The struggle to remain open sent firms further into debt. Seventy-nine percent of firms had debt outstanding, an 8% increase from 2019. Debt also increased; the share of firms with more than $100,000 in debt rose from 31% to 44%.
The majority of U.S. businesses believe the next year will be rife with the same struggles as the last. Many believe weak demand, government shutdowns, and supply chain breaks will continue disrupting the world economy.
Overall, firms applied for financing less, from 43% in 2019 to 37% in 2020.
Firms got their funds this year through Government aid programs, and they did so through their pre-existing bank relationships, forgoing alternative funders. Forty-eight percent went through large banks for PPP, 43% to smaller banks. 95% and 83%, respectively, already had a relationship with their large or small bank.
Enova Pleased With The OnDeck Acquisition, Looking to Divest ODX, OnDeck Canada, OnDeck Australia
February 5, 2021
“We’re very pleased so far with the OnDeck acquisition and as we view the economic landscape, we continue to believe that it’s an excellent time to be increasing our focus on SMB lending,” Enova CEO David Fisher said on the company’s Q4 earnings call. Enova originated $120 million in small business loans in December and $95 million in November. The October figure wasn’t specified, but back-of-the-napkin math based on other provided statistics suggests it was about $54 million.
Growing those originations will continue to be their primary agenda as the economy improves, the company said, while the ODX side of the business may be shown the door.
“While ODX has been able to sign some high-profile bank clients, divesting ODX will allow for more efficient use of capital as the business has over 70 employees but less than $10 million in revenue,” Fisher said.
OnDeck Canada and OnDeck Australia may also be on the chopping block.
“The Australian and Canadian businesses are viable businesses in their respective market,” Fisher said, “but are small compared to OnDeck US operations and are unlikely to have a significant impact on Enova’s overall growth. In addition, OnDeck only has partial ownership of those two businesses.”
Meanwile, OnDeck’s portfolio outlook is improving.
“The percentage of OnDeck receivables past due 30 days and more declined during the quarter from 23.2% in closing to 15.6% at December 31,” said Enova CFO Steve Cunningham.
On the call, JMP analyst David Scharf asked when OnDeck would return to quarterly origination levels of $550M to $650M as it had been enjoying prior to the pandemic.
“I mean I think there’s just way too much uncertainty to be able to answer that,” Fisher replied. “I mean, does the vaccine work great and the economy opens up soon or is there a new strain of the COVID virus that requires lockdowns during the summer? I mean, there’s no way to know. But I think there’s a couple trends that are super encouraging for us and we saw great sequential growth as we talked about throughout the call.”
Fisher also added that they’ve seen a bunch of competitors go out of business. “We think we have a lot of share in the market that we don’t think has shrunk and so we think we’re really well positioned as this pandemic winds down,” he said.
Merchant Cash Advance Approval Rate Was 84% in 2020, Federal Reserve Finds
February 3, 2021Eighty-four percent of applicants that applied for a merchant cash advance in 2020 were approved, according to the latest study published by the Federal Reserve. However, that figure includes the pre-March 2020 covid era.
When MCAs and online loans were blended, for example, the approval rate shrank from 81% pre-March 1st to 70% after March 1st.
Eight percent of all small businesses sought a merchant cash advance in 2020, down slightly from 9% in 2019. Leasing dropped from 9% to 7% and factoring dropped from 4% to 3%. Pursuit of credit cards even dropped, down from 29% to 21%.
There were some downsides for the online lending industry reported.
Only 9% of PPP applicants used an online lender.
Online lenders had the lowest satisfaction rate (43%) for small business credit needs. Credit unions scored the highest (87%).
Net satisfaction with online lenders dropped to its lowest level since 2016.
Small businesses satisfaction with big banks actually grew from 2019 to 2020.
Small businesses were less likely to apply for a business loan or MCA from an online lender in 2020 and more likely to apply for them at a bank in 2020 than they were in 2019.
Eighty-two percent of businesses applied for a PPP loan. Forty-seven percent applied for an EIDL loan.
Banks, perhaps counterintuitively, were the big winners in 2020. That trend could increase as banks and online lenders become the same thing.
StreetShares Discontinues Veteran Business Bonds
February 3, 2021StreetShares, the former online lender that pivoted to Lending-as-a-Service in October, is no long offering its veteran business bond program as a result.
A note on its website says:
“Thank you Veteran Business Bond investors! We have achieved our Bond funding needs. As a result, we have discontinued our offering of Veteran Business Bonds. New Bonds are no longer available for purchase or investment. Your current Bonds continue to earn 5% annual interest. Investors are able to log in to access their accounts.“
An Amazon Capital Lending Loan
February 2, 2021Amazon’s small business lending business is no small operation. deBanked recently viewed a loan agreement between Amazon Lending and an Amazon seller in which the seller received a loan of $300,000 at an annual interest rate of 15.99%.
In 2019, we estimated that the company had originated $1.5B in small business loans, placing them in the #5 slot on our list, but the company is possibly on track to be #1.
Double Dipped: What’s Next For New York’s Small Business ‘Truth in Lending’ Act
January 11, 2021
Last year, when the Small Business ‘Truth in the Lending’ bill came through the New York State Senate Banking Committee, Senator George M. Borrello said he and other members went to work. Their job: to write a version everyone would like, which fell apart when the bill passed in July and it was signed into law just before Christmas.
“I’m a small business owner myself, but I also come from local government, and in local government, the committee is where the work gets done,” Borrello said. “We had the opportunity to fix this in committee. By the time it got to the floor, the governor basically reversed all the things I presented that were flaws, and he signed it.”
That’s the story of how S5470B came to be in Albany. Instead of ironing out the kinks in committee, Borrello said he watched as the bill with all its problems passed over the summer. There was a process to clean it up afterwards to make it suitable for Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature, since it’s said that even he himself had expressed reservations about the language. But then he signed the original version and all the edits were discarded.
Politics are suspected to have played a role in that.
“When the governor finds something is flawed, he usually vetoes and sends it back,” Borrello said. “It concerns me that there is an underlying political angle that has nothing to do with the Truth in Lending.”
Steve Denis, the executive director of the Small Business Finance Association, said that he doesn’t think that the signed bill that is up on the state senate website will be the final version.
“It is so poorly drafted that even companies that support the bill have liability and will be the first to get sued,” Denis said. “The SBFA will be a lot more aggressive; the legislature has a lot to work on in the next session. It has been a wake-up call, unifying the industry. We will be more aggressive to create a more favorable version.”
Denis has attested to the harm the bill will do to the SMB finance industry in New York, costing billions of dollars in fines and litigation. He pointed out that major companies like PayPal have fought against the bill, and the proponents “recognized it was not a good bill, but passed it to fix it.”
Borrello said that it is common in Albany to encounter legislation written by lawmakers who don’t understand small business owners who deal with regulation every day. Borrello and his wife worked in the hospitality business for years before going into public service. Borello said he feels business owners’ pain during the pandemic, especially in the restaurant and hotel industry.
He said the end result of this new bill when it comes into effect this July: funding and lending companies will stop providing services in New York State, directly harming the small businesses the bill claims to help.
“One of my frustrations, being on the banking committee, is that we do things that ultimately make it more difficult for people to access credit and financing in New York State,” Borrello said. “You’re talking about small businesses that are already hurting, having financial difficulties accessing lines of credit. This disclosure law passing during this pandemic is one more nail in the coffin for small business.”
The Legislature, the Governor, and the Department of Financial Services (DFS) all reportedly had issues with the bill: yet it passed. Borrello said a problem with “nonsense lawmaking” comes from competition with other states. New York compares itself with California to “prove we’re the most progressive.” Borrello also pointed out that California passed its version of a lending disclosure bill more than two years ago, and their version of the DFS still cannot find a way to calculate an APR metric for factoring or MCA.
As the bill was argued on the legislative floor, Borrello brought up the controversial “double-dipping” term that had been inserted in the language. Borrello came to the same conclusion as Denis, that there is no double-dipping term: It was just conjured up for the bill to sound scary, negative, and damaging.
“Other than talking about potato chips, I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Borrello said. “When you haven’t defined it, in the legislature, it comes down to a political talking point and dog whistle. You enshrine a rather vague piece of jargon in the legislation, and it shows how deeply flawed it is.”
Borrello now plans to work with the Governor, DFS, and legislature to amend and change the bill. He is also fighting for a Republican banking overhaul to provide further credit access to small businesses.
“The next step now is to go back and see what needs to be fixed,” Borrello said. “Hopefully, my role now as the ranking member of the banking committee, we can have a common-sense conversation about how to actually fix it.”
Lendio Starts Funding Engines, PPP is On The Way
December 30, 2020
President Trump officially signed the economic relief package Sunday night. While the House, President, and Senate can’t agree on the checks individual Americans will get from Uncle Sam, $284 billion for PPP is on the way.
In preparation, Lendio, an online loan marketplace that facilitated $8 billion in PPP funds over the summer, has already opened the application floodgates. But when is the bill landing?
“The SBA has ten days from the time it was signed into law, January sixth, when they have to give guidance,” Lendio CEO Brock Blake said. “Then, they have some time after that they’ll open it up, my guess is that it will likely go live somewhere between the 10th to 15th.”
Firms, start your funding engines; the money is coming in about two weeks. And Blake said that with the demand for capital this high—the funds would go quick.
“My guess is that it will be two to three weeks, maybe a little longer,” Blake said. “One of the reasons it will last a little bit longer is because they reduced the loan maximum size from ten million to two million. As a result, two to three weeks or more like, you know, three or four.”
Lawmakers initiated limits to the high end this time around to halt concerns that “small business” bailout money was going to larger sized firms. That isn’t the only change for what some say could be the final round of government stimulus.
“I like what they’ve done this time around, addressing some of the key issues, first of which allowing borrowers to have a second turn on PPP loans,” Blake said. “This pandemic has lasted longer than anyone expected, and there’s a lot of restrictions on these business owners.”
The first time around, the Fed handed out forgivable funds based on two and a half months of payroll, and that went real quick, Blake said. For a firm to meet the criteria for a second loan, they have to prove they have a 25% reduction in revenue from 2019 to 2020.
Blake said he was excited that the new aid is granting industries especially hard hit, like restaurants and hotels, to get larger loans “three and a half time instead of two and a half times.” Blake’s favorite part of the new program is incentivizing lenders to serve genuine smaller businesses, where last time they were not.
“Last time, so many of the smallest small businesses were at a disadvantage because we all know lenders prioritize the largest loan sizes first,” Blake said. “They left the smallest of small business out.”
Lendio and fintech lenders focused on this underserved market of small businesses last time, Blake said. After advocating on behalf of small borrowers, Blake said there are incentives for lenders to give to the underserved and actually make money.
“Thankfully, in this new PPP program, they created a new incentive package for loans smaller than $50,000,” Blake said. “That makes these smaller loans a priority, instead of put toward the back of the list.”
