Bank loans are the typical first step for most small and medium-sized businesses, but another form of business lending has emerged: FinTech companies that use algorithms to determine whether a business is worth the risk. Desautels Professor Paul Beaumont’s research has found that firms served by FinTech platforms have fewer tangible assets than bank borrowers—yet relative to similar firms that take out bank loans or were denied FinTech credit, FinTech borrowers experience a long-term 20% increase in bank credit after receiving their FinTech loan.
“We have been lending the same way to small and medium-sized enterprises now for decades,” says Beaumont. “FinTechs constitute an innovation in the way we lend to firms. This is exciting because it means that finally we have invented a new business model to provide funds to small and medium-sized businesses… What we observed is that, in a sense, FinTechs fill the void left by banks when banks lend less often to small and medium-sized businesses.”
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