merchant financing
What Would Barney Frank Say?
July 16, 2014While crowd funders navigate the JOBS Act and a possible revision to what constitutes an accredited investor, non-bank business lenders are raising eyebrows with sky high interest rates. Annual Percentage Rates (APRs) are reaching into the triple digits and critics are reaching for their megaphones to say something about it.
Unfortunately APRs don’t spell out the true dollar for dollar cost, a flaw pointed out by OnDeck Capital CEO Noah Breslow in regards to daily amortizing loans. In the June Access to Capital Small Business Panel, Breslow explained that a 60% APR loan could actually only cost 15% on a dollar for dollar basis over 6 months simply because of daily amortizing.
Still, the figures make for enticing headlines and it is to be expected that they will come under greater public scrutiny as time goes on.
In an opportunity I got to speak one-on-one with former Congressman Barney Frank in June, he offered some pretty interesting thoughts on the governance of business to business transactions.
Frank, who was the key author of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that was signed into law in 2010, was a longtime champion of consumer financial protections. But he sings a different tune when it’s all about business. Many people may not realize that he opposed the Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank Act, the addition that placed caps and restrictions on debit card interchange fees. Federal restrictions on how much a business can charge another business? Not his thing…
Unsurprisingly then when I asked him if he’d be in favor of a federal cap on business loan interest rates, he sternly replied, “no.” He went on to say that he supported transparency in business loan transactions, such that the borrower should be easily able to identify the terms, but that the premise behind consumer loan protections was that consumers were less sophisticated.
Curiously, there are a few states that impose caps on commercial interest rates, making the regional landscape for high rate business lenders a little bit tricky. In a recent publication by financial law firm Hudson Cook, they spelled out federal laws that already govern business loans.
To date there has been no legislative activity related to merchant cash advance or alternative business lenders. If such discussion did arise though, it’s ironic to say that one of the most liberal congressmen of the last decade, a man who wrecked Wall Street, would stand to make an excellent champion of the alternative business lending cause.
I never thought I’d say this, but too bad the guy retired.
The Real Impact on Small Business
May 22, 2014
It’s not easy being in the lending business. Just talking about money can make people uncomfortable. Bringing up how much money you have, don’t have, or wish you had is like bringing up politics at Thanksgiving dinner. It’s taboo in this society. It’s even rude to ask somebody how much they make a year. That’s one of two reasons why being a lender or loan broker is so difficult, you’re forced to dive head first into emotionally charged waters.
The second reason is telling an applicant ‘no’. It feels personal even if it’s not. “It’s just business,” the bearer of bad news will say, but it never feels that way. I know that firsthand through my experience as both a broker and an underwriter. Rejection is a painful experience for an applicant no matter how professional they are.
But sometimes you get to tell an applicant ‘yes’ and that can be an emotionally moving experience as well. Looking back, the only applicants I ever heard cry were the ones that got approved. Some of those approvals were expensive but they were given an opportunity in a world where up until that point, no one was willing to give them any opportunity at all. They were the forgotten businesses of America.
PayPal’s VP of SMB Lending recently said that he feels “blessed to be serving this higher need.” Blessed was an interesting word choice. Being able to support small businesses doesn’t just make him feel happy or hopeful or satisfied, it makes him feel blessed.
What is the real impact that alternative financing companies have on small businesses? Thanks to the funding companies who took the time to find out. Today, we can see for ourselves:
Above is just a small handful of the testimonials you can find on the websites of CAN Capital, Kabbage, RapidAdvance, Fora Financial, and Merchant Cash and Capital. Real businesses, real stories, real impact.
And there you have it…
Big Deal #2 Struck in MCA Industry
May 21, 2014
Another day, another capital raise for some company or other involved in alternative business lending. That’s the way it is these days, but the news about the American Finance Solutions (AFS)/CapFin Partners deal announced on Wednesday is markedly different.
It’s the Rockbridge Growth Equity (RGE)/RapidAdvance deal all over again, the welcoming of a major MCA company into a wider lending family. Though the release does not specify the amount of equity CapFin Partners acquired in the transaction, nor any valuation figure, the headline literally says it’s significant.
CapFin Partners is also a significant investor in Contintental Business Credit (CBC), an asset-based lender that’s been in operation since 1989. The CapFin deal will bring AFS and CBC together strategically. As said in the release, “the union of these two financial lending companies will widen the portfolio of services offered, which now include merchant cash advances, factoring and asset based loans.”
The design is strikingly similar to the RapidAdvance/RGE deal.
AFS/CapFin
The investment and close relationship with CBC will provide operational expertise, a diversified client base and a larger pool of capital for funding customers
RapidAdvance/RGE
By aligning with Rockbridge, we will leverage our new relationship with its portfolio of companies, bringing best practices and expertise to nearly every aspect of our business.
Both funders were founded in the pre-recession era, giving investors a chance to review performance and returns both through good times and bad.
Two years ago I predicted that “MCA will simply assimilate into other financial products.” As is the case with these two deals, it’s already becoming just one product out of many offered by financial institutions. Elsewhere in the industry, MCA companies are offering true loans to stay competitive and some funders are passing on MCA completely to focus just on traditional business loans with terms up to 10 years and traditional interest rates.
The AFS deal proved yet again though that there is a market to buy (or buy into) established reputable merchant cash advance companies. That should give hope to new funders that are trying to formulate a long-term exit strategy.
Congratulations to American Finance Solutions.
Would an APR Help?
May 14, 2014Merchant cash advance industry hater Ami Kassar added to his collection of rants today in the Wall Street Journal by writing about the True Costs of Cash-Advance Loans.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek writer Pat Clark, knowing full well that Kassar and I have sparred online, tweeted:
curious what @financeguy74 thinks RT @akassar: The true cost of cash advance loans: my latest @wsj column http://t.co/BjyqMgM8Uz
— Patrick Clark (@pat_clark) May 14, 2014
My response:
Do I think merchant cash advances when structured as loans should include a prominently displayed APR on the contract?: Yes, though I believe this is less helpful than the dollar for dollar cost explanations that are already presented. But in the name of maximum transparency, it would be a good thing to have on there.
Do I think less business owners would use such loans if the APR was prominently displayed?: No
If DealStruck can make their model work, then great. What I want to know is, what happens to the businesses they won’t approve?
Securitization Begins in Alternative Business Lending
May 1, 2014
It’s official, alternative business loans can now be pooled up and sold off to investors. On Wednesday, OnDeck Capital announced a $175 million transaction made possible by issuing fixed rate notes backed by their loans.
Their Class A notes were rated BBB by DBRS while the Class B notes received a BB.
According to DBRS, BBB grade are of “Adequate credit quality. The capacity for the payment of financial obligations is considered acceptable. May be vulnerable to future events.”
BB grade are “Speculative, non-investment grade quality. The capacity for the payment of financial obligations is uncertain. Vulnerable to future events.”
While it’s popular to refer to alternative business lending as highly speculative and fraught with risk, it’s notable that a highly respected ratings agency would not officially bestow OnDeck’s loans with a label to match that. A single B would’ve signified a highly speculative investment and CCC, CC, and C would signal danger. But OnDeck’s Class A notes are up to snuff as investment-grade level material.
OnDeck has been dogged by critics over the last few years, most of whom are their competitors. The argument goes that their practice of undercutting the rest of the industry on rates is doomed to fail. Those theories are bolstered by the very public knowledge that they have yet to turn a profit. Back in March, CEO Noah Breslow was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying they were “imminently profitable“, an optimistic yet openly ambiguous indicator of where they stand. Since they are not a publicly traded company, they are not required to disclose their financial statements.
While DBRS serves to validate OnDeck’s policies and approach, word that they had achieved “investment-grade” status did little to pacify their critics. Yet, for a company that places a remarkably heavier focus on credit modeling and technology infrastructure than the majority of their peers, there is always the possibility that OnDeck is actually as smart as they want everyone to believe. Four months ago it was reported that “fifty-six of their 225 employees have backgrounds in math, statistics, computer science, or engineering.” Contrast that with some of the small and mid-sized players that are largely focused on ISO recruitment and sales.
While I haven’t seen a prospectus in its entirely, I’ve learned there are quite a few ground rules in place for these notes. For one, these loan pools have to be diversified. That means no secretly packaging up all the loans in a risky zip code in Nevada and selling them off as a BBB rated note. There are concentration limits in place to reduce risk. Below are the maximum thresholds allowed in a pool based on their location:
Obligor Located in California 20.0%
Obligor Located in Florida 15.0%
Obligor Located in New York 15.0%
Obligor Located in Texas 15.0%
Obligor Located in Any Other State 10.0%
If a concentration limit is exceeded, the issuer is required to maintain additional credit enhancement. I’m not surprised at all that California, Florida, New York, and Texas are singled out. In addition to being among the most populous in the country, they are the heaviest users of alternative business loans and merchant cash advances. There’s also the theory that Floridians are statistically the least likely to repay a loan, as openly discussed in The Joy of Redlining, a controversial assessment borne out of the peer-to-peer lending crowd.
There are other concentration limits to adhere to such as the OnDeck Score range (not FICO score range), size of the outstanding principal, industry type, and repayment time frame.
Notably, recognition and acceptance of the proprietary OnDeck Score in concentration limits is a major achievement for them. Breslow previously referred to the OnDeck Score as “the Main Street equivalent of FICO” in American Banker.
Additionally, OnDeck’s reliance on ISOs/brokers for originations is shrinking. In 2013, their direct marketing channel accounted for 43% of their deal flow, compared to only 12% back in 2010. This is a step in the right direction for them financially as broker commissions are on the rise. Increasing the direct marketing percentage will serve as a hedge against increasing third party origination costs.
So what’s next?
For now, OnDeck Capital can enjoy the liquidity gained through securitization and focus on more important things like growth and profitability. Profits are a must in the current IPO environment. Payment company Square had their IPO hopes dashed when word of their losses were leaked to the Wall Street Journal. That came as a shock to the general public. Meanwhile everybody already has an idea of where OnDeck stands, sort of. They’re either brilliant or doomed to fail. I’d say an independent assessment that they’re capable of issuing investment grade notes, increases their odds of brilliance.
Whatever your feelings, they have set a powerful precedent for secuitization. As these notes were reportedly oversubscribed, investors will be looking to their competitors for a taste. OnDeck just whet the appetite. Additional securitization in this industry could be right around the corner. One might say it’s… imminent.
What if there were Trigger Leads?
April 27, 2014
Just recently, a user in DailyFunder’s forum complained that a deal of his had been poached by a competitor. There’s nothing new about that story, but it is what followed that drew interest. He was in the process of renewing his client for additional funds, when out of the blue popped up a competitor that called his client to tell them not to sign the contract they had in their hands until they heard his better offer.
As it was suspiciously timed and curiously specific, he decided to reach out to the alternative lending community for their thoughts. One possible conclusion offered was that the competitor was being fed trigger leads.
Trigger leads?????????????????
Forget UCCs folks. UCCs detail transactions that have already happened and we’ve all seen what they’ve done to the merchant cash advance and alternative business lending industry. Companies are scared to file them now. But what if all of your competitors were notified every time one of your deals was submitted to underwriting? You get the app signed, you submit the file, and the next day 10 companies have called your client to offer them a better deal on funding than whatever terms you were about to offer. What gives?
Popular in the mortgage industry, the credit bureaus can actually sell credit inquiry data to lenders. So imagine every time credit gets pulled on a deal, the merchant’s info is sent out to your competitors for a fee.
Dave Sullivan explains Trigger leads below:
There was no way to tell for sure if that was what happened in this situation, and I’ve yet to hear of trigger leads being used in the alternative business lending industry but if someone was getting them, I’m sure they’d want to keep their source top secret.
Can you imagine what kind of chaos would ensue if this became commonplace in our industry?
😉
Regulatory Paranoia and the Industry Civil War
April 11, 2014Stacking is on everyone’s minds in the merchant cash advance (MCA) industry but that war is little more than smoke compared to the fire burning in our own backyard. One of the major topics of debate at Transact 14 has been Operation Choke Point, a federal campaign against banks and payment processors to kill off the payday lending industry and protect consumer bank accounts. Caught in the mix are law abiding financial institutions, some of which if affected, could potentially disrupt the merchant cash advance and alternative lending industries. Both have become heavily dependent on ACH processing. Could their strength become their Achilles heel?
Indeed, there was a rumor circulating around the conference that a popular ACH processor in the MCA industry is no longer accepting new funding companies. I know the name but was not able to confirm it as fact. There is a two-fold threat on the horizon:
1. The probability that ACH processors in this industry are also processing payments for payday lenders or other high risk businesses.
2. The likelihood that a bank or ACH processor would take preemptive action and terminate relationships with merchant cash advance companies and alternative business lenders, not because it’s illegal but as a way to make their books squeaky clean.
The sentiment at the conference however was that MCA providers and alternative business lenders had little need to worry. While Operation Choke Point specifies online lenders, they are narrowly defined as businesses making loans to consumers. MCA and their counterparts do not fall under that scope, even if they themselves lend exclusively online.
Is regulation coming?
There seems to be both a call for and paranoia about regulation, especially in the context of stacking merchant cash advances and daily repayment business loans. On the popular online forum DailyFunder, several opponents of stacking are under the impression that regulators will be busting down doors any day now to put an end to businesses utilizing multiple sources of expensive capital simultaneously. Many insiders who have had their merchants stacked on view the issue as both a legal and a moral one. Opponents get worked up about it for many reasons. They believe any one or multiple of the following:
- The merchant can’t sell something which has already been contractually sold to another party.
- That the merchant ends up borrowing and selling their future revenues at their own peril, endangering their cash flow and their business.
- That the stackers endanger the first lender or funder’s ability to collect.
- That the merchant taking on stacks won’t be eligible for additional funds with the first company, hurting the retention rate.
Stacking is not illegal, but it may be tortious interference. That allegation is the one that gets thrown around the most, but it’s important to recognize that actual damages are an integral part of any such case. If I stack on your merchant and the deal performs as expected for you, then what damages would you have suffered? But if I stack on your deal and it defaults 3 weeks later, you might be able to allege that I was the cause of it.
Insiders on DailyFunder’s forum that wonder how they might be able to get stacking to stop, only need to follow the example of what a few select funders are already doing, going on the offensive. The first thing one west coast MCA company does when they have a merchant default is find out if there was a stack that came on top of them. If they find out who it was, they send the offending funder a bill for the outstanding balance. That may sound cheesy, but given their industry prowess and litigious nature, they said that some stackers quietly mail them a check, rather than risk things escalating to the next level. The threats only hold weight of course if you’re actually prepared to bring the case to court.
I’ve spoken with dozens of proponents for stacking, many of sound character, high intelligence, and business acumen. They buck the stereotype of stackers as sleazy wall street guys with pinky rings. Few of these proponents believe that future revenue is a precise asset. It’s been said that, “future revenues are unknowable and possibly infinite. A business should be able to sell infinite amounts of these future revenues if there are investors out there that will buy them.” The general consensus on this side of the aisle is that a 2nd position stack, or “seconds” are here to stay. There’s a sense of calm and conviction, as if seconds were a boring subject of little contention. Many are okay with thirds “if the math works” but discomfort sets in on fourths, fifths and beyond. If they believe it’ll be a good investment, they’ll do the deal. They scoff at the notion that they’d willingly chance putting a merchant out of business since that would jeopardize their own investment.
To date, I’ve seen no data to support that stacking causes merchants to go out of business. I would not be surprised if there was a correlation between defaults and stacks, but that would not imply causation. A business that is on its way towards bankruptcy regardless may be able to obtain a few stacks in the process as a last ditch effort to stave it off. When the business finally fails, it may appear to look like the stacks caused it, even if they didn’t.
For those that don’t want to play cat and mouse with threats and lawsuits, there’s a growing call for regulation, both self-regulation and federal. That call feeds off the paranoia that regulators are knocking at the industry’s door already anyway.
NAMAA
In regards to self-regulation, insiders have been looking to the North American Merchant Advance Association (NAMAA) to create rules and become an enforcer. It’s no secret that their members are opponents of stacking, but as a powerful body of industry leaders, they’re up against a threat of their own, antitrust laws. Creating rules and enforcing them could be construed as anti-competitive. In truth, a lot of the MCA industry’s growth over the last 2 years can be attributed to stacking. A private association of the largest players actively working to establish rules to squash the fast growing segment of new entrants could indeed be perceived as anti-competitive.
But that doesn’t mean NAMAA is powerless to promote their views. Following in the footsteps of the Electronic Transactions Association, they could create a set of best practices, host workshops, and offer courses and sessions to train newcomers on these best practices. Such benefits and opportunities are a standard in the payments industry, but nothing like it is available in MCA or alternative business lending.
But is it too late for self regulation?
With all the government enforcement occurring in the rest of the financial sphere, fears of imminent federal involvement in MCA and alternative business lending are not unfounded… or are they?
In the wake of the financial crisis, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was formed to protect consumers in financial markets. The CFPB was instrumental in Operation Choke Point and they would be the most likely federal agency to field complaints about stacking. Unlike the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency which has jurisdiction over banks, the CFPB’s oversight extends to non-bank financial institutions. They’re the wild card agency that has financial companies across the nation on their heels.
I had the opportunity to speak with a former lead attorney of the CFPB off the record today about the definition of consumer. Could a small business be construed as a consumer? The short answer was no. The long answer was that there is no specific definition of consumer at the CFPB but it was meant to represent individuals. Although businesses at the end of the day are run by individuals, I got a pretty confident response that the CFPB would not have jurisdiction over a business lending money to a business, even if it was a very small 1 or 2 man operation. If they were acting in a commercial capacity, then they’re no longer consumers.
The other side of her argument was that it would take up too much resources to take on a case where the victim class was basically outside of their scope. The CFPB already has enough on their plate.
Is the government busy?
I also spoke with a few lobbyists and payments industry attorneys off the record and the unilateral response was that MCA and alternative business lending were not on any agenda, nor does the government have the resources to juggle something that is basically…insignificant in their eyes.
In the grand scheme of financial issues, a few billion year in small business-to-business financing transactions isn’t worth anyone’s breath. “A business acting in a business capacity was unhappy with a business contract they entered into? Take it up in civil court,” I imagine a regulator might say.
Regulators aren’t completely in the dark about MCA. Just a month or two ago, several industry captains and myself included were contacted by the Federal Reserve as part of a research mission to basically find out what this industry even was. The feds appear to have stumbled upon the MCA industry as part of their research into peer-to-peer lending. Who would’ve thought a 16 year old industry could be so stealthy?
If the big PR machines like Kabbage, Lending Club, and OnDeck Capital didn’t exist, I’m inclined to believe no one in the government would’ve heard of MCA for at least another 10 years. In 2014, they’re just now discovering it.
My gut tells me we’re a long way from any kind of regulatory enforcement. In a session I attended at Transact 14 today, a former member of the Department of Justice and a current member of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency both offered examples of cases that took 3-8 years before there was an enforcement action. In each scenario, they alerted the parties there was a problem and they were given time to correct it. They had to show progress along the way and eventually when no such progress was made after years of warnings, they acted.
In the conversation of regulation, alternative business lending and MCA are relatively tiny. Lending Club does more in loan volume each year than the entire MCA industry combined. So long as there’s no fraud involved, small business-to-business financing transactions are not likely to make it on the agenda for federal regulators for a long time. That doesn’t mean it won’t be there some day in the future.
I think it was Brian Mooney, the CEO of Bank America Merchant Services that said in the Transact 14 roundtable discussion that if something feels wrong in your gut, don’t do it. Debra Rossi, the head of Wells Fargo Merchant Services added that you can’t tell a regulator, “I didn’t know.” Keep those suggestions in the front of your mind.
No police
For the foreseeable future it’s on us as an industry to find a resolution to stacking. There’s no such thing as the cash advance police. On one side is tort law. On the other is creating best practices and actively educating newcomers. That’s where the blood boiling debates need to turn to. After all, there’s already a large crowd that yawns over seconds, a group that wholeheartedly believes a stack is just as legitimate as a first position deal.
Instead of waiting for a referee to call foul on somebody, I think 2014 is the year to realize that you might be stuck in the room with the person you hate. Could you bring yourself to tolerate them for years to come?
Blind spot
We should consider that the greatest threat to the industry may not come from within, but from outside. More than 50% of MCA/alternative business lending transactions are repaid via ACH. Government action on ACH providers or the banks that sponsor them could end up hitting this industry as collateral damage.
One metric that banks and regulators consider is the return rate of ACHs, namely the percentage of ACHs rejected for insufficient funds or rejected because the transactions weren’t authorized. Daily fixed debits run the risk of rejects and boost the return rate. Could the frequency of your rejects eventually scare the processor into terminating the relationship? With the pressure they’re getting from the Department of Justice, there’s always the possibility.
Data security is another sleeping giant to consider. Do you keep merchant data safe? Are you protected from hackers?
Know your merchant. The push towards automated underwriting seems dead set on eliminating humans from the analysis. But what if the algorithm misses something and loans get approved to facilitate a money laundering scheme? Or what if it approves a known terrorist?
Paranoia
If you’re paranoid you’re doing something wrong, then maybe you are doing something wrong even if there’s no current law against it. Follow your gut, create value, and work together. Who knows, maybe one day there will be an ETA-like organization for MCA and alternative business lending. Now is a good time to be proactive.
