Brock Blake

4 weeks ago | forbes.com | Brock Blake

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), established nearly 50 years ago, requires financial institutions to address the needs of the communities in which they operate, particularly in low- and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods. This includes providing loans to small businesses with annual revenues under $1 million. This initiative is undoubtedly commendable. However, fulfilling CRA requirements places considerable pressure on banks that operate manually to meet these needs.

1 month ago | forbes.com | Brock Blake

While small business sentiment reached a 3.5-year high in November, a January report from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) indicated that uncertainty is rising. There are several reasons for this. Entrepreneurs are closely watching how potential tariffs and inflation play out as they consider what they can afford to do this year and how they will finance it.

2 months ago | forbes.com | Brock Blake

Financial technology is plentiful – recent put the total number of SaaS companies at 17,000 across the United States as demand for cloud-based services continues and the pace of technology continues to expand. These companies significantly outnumber the total number of 4,577 FDIC-insured banks in the country. It makes sense that financial institution decision-makers are inundated with trends, tools, and emerging tech.

2 months ago | forbes.com | Brock Blake

Bob Dylan certainly wasn’t referencing lender financing when he wrote “The Times They Are A-Changin',” but the parallels between the 1960s generational gap in politics and today’s technology gap in financing are curious. Many banks in the United States continue to manually underwrite small business loans. This slow and expensive process, often riddled with inherent human bias, results in frequent rejection of loans based on one data point: the credit score.

2 months ago | forbes.com | Brock Blake

Small business owners aren’t loyal to their bank. Perhaps it’s no surprise. As inherent problem solvers, it’s safe to say that they’ll move their company’s money to the institution most willing to work with them. It makes sense: to survive, these companies need both capital and resources. When faced with unfavorable conditions, they are right to quickly make a move. Over the last few years, this hasn’t posed a problem for banks.