SMB, or small and medium business, lending is a hot topic on everyone's minds in today's climate, especially over the last 2 weeks with the emergence of the PPP loan. Our country's economy is suffering, and while this impacts everyone, it disproportionately impacts the small businesses of America. Given that SMBs employ over half of US population, and with the drastic increase in national unemployment, we need this sector healthy in order to ensure a healthy economy moving forward. Equipped with that background, now, more than ever, banks need to enhance their digital banking capabilities, specifically their digital origination to better service their SMB customers.
I have spent the last few weeks deeply immersed in this topic and decided that there was no one better to discuss this further with than my long time friend, Jorge Sun. Jorge's resume speaks for itself, as the former Head of Small Business Credit at Capital One Bank, founding team member and company director at OnDeck Capital (IPOed December 2014), and former board member of the Small Business Financial Exchange among many other banking leadership roles, to say Jorge is an expert in SMB lending is an understatement. All of his past experience has led Jorge to his next mission, building a fintech startup, LendingFront. LendingFront provides cutting edge lending technology to banks to modernize the origination underwriting and servicing of SMB loans. I sat down with Jorge to speak about the status of SMB lending now and in the future.