In 2014, small businesses were still struggling to recover, prompting our first HBS Working Paper: \u201cThe State of Small Business Lending: Access to Credit During the Recovery and How Technology May Change the Game,\u201d which focused on a then-controversial question: \u201cIs there a credit gap in small business lending?\u201d.<\/p>\n
One answer became clear: a gap in access to credit for small businesses did exist and was particularly persistent in small-dollar loans\u2014those defined as under $250,000.This finding is noteworthy, as this is the level of loan that most small businesses want; more than 70 percent of small businesses seek loans in amounts under $250,000, and more than 60 percent want loans under $100,000.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, this was exactly the market targeted by a new set of lenders. Entrepreneurs and innovators saw the opportunity, and over the last several years have created an emerging, dynamic market of online lenders that use technology to disrupt the small business lending market. Though still small relative to the traditional bank market, these new competitors provide fast turnaround and online accessibility for customers and use new data and credit scoring algorithms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Innovation and Technology and the Implications for Regulation<\/em><\/p>\n Small businesses are core to America\u2019s economic competitiveness. Not only do they employ half of the nation\u2019s private-sector workforce \u2013 about 62 million people \u2013 but since 1995 they have created approximately 60 percent of the net new jobs in our country. Small businesses were hit especially hard by the Great Recession, accounting for over 60 percent of the total jobs lost, in part because the crisis was centered on the banking sector. Credit-oriented crises are known to have a disproportionate effect on credit-dependent entities such as small businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":47284,"template":"","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[1842,2347],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-75739","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-sme-finance","product_cat-study-library","pmpro-has-access","first","instock","shipping-taxable","product-type-external"],"yoast_head":"\n