Small Business Origination: Why it is a Big Deal to Financial Institutions
Small businesses play a vital role for financial institutions; while not as numerous as individual or personal accounts, the accounts they do have hold higher profitability potential than individual accounts and some are even backed by partial payback guarantees by the government.
These businesses essentially have three options for startup finances: initial investment of capital of their own, loans, and credit cards. When applying for a loan or credit card, small business origination works to find out the worthiness and risk of lending to both the individual and the business. The smaller the business, the more the individual is scrutinized–they essentially put themselves and personal belongings up as collateral.
Financial institutions can realize a high return rate on various accounts relating to businesses of this size. Business accounts, even businesses just getting started, are more profitable to financial institutions than personal accounts for a few reasons. These businesses are more willing to accept maintenance fees on accounts, the checking accounts have greater returns, and they loans taken out are generally larger and include a guarantee from the Small Business Administration (SBA) for at least partial repayment if the small business does not succeed.
When an application for a business loan is submitted, the paperwork and time involved are extensive for the applicant, a larger amount of capital requested versus what a credit card limit might be, and the risk is higher for both the lending institution and the borrower. Because of the nature of the risk and return associated with small business origination, financial institutions are willing to take more time to review these applications and use manual labor to do so. Loans are often taken in order to acquire expensive capital expenditures (ie. equipment, buildings, and other large one-time purchases).
The process for small business credit card origination in comparison to the loan application is much faster, the credit limit is generally smaller than a loan would be, and the interest rates are higher for consumers. Credit cards are used not to make large one-time purchases, but to cover the expense for the smaller, day-to-day items that the business requires. Credit cards do, however, have the additional benefit of realizing returns to the small business owner (ie. cash back, airline miles, retail discounts).
Small business origination covers both loans and credit cards. The processes for each are quite different and in the end, each kind of lending has their own perks and downfalls. Financial institutions realize different returns from each and thus have to weigh the risks associated with this lending.