April 12, 2023

The Future of Small Business Lending

Recent banking failures have everyone in finance wondering what the future holds for lending. Do these signify the start of some significant changes in the lending space? To find out, we’re speaking with...

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Recent banking failures have everyone in finance wondering what the future holds for lending.

Do these signify the start of some significant changes in the lending space?

To find out, we’re speaking with Kris Puskar, Senior Vice President Business Banking Sales & Innovation Director at Eastern Bank, and Christina Brozyna Head of Business Banking Sales & Operations/Executive Vice President at M&T Bank. Both of whom are well-qualified to weigh in, holding positions on the Small Business Banking Committee at the Consumer Banking Association.

Join us as we discuss:

  • How the recent failures affect deposit sentiment and strategy
  • The rise of SBA lending
  • Shifting consumer expectations after PPP lending and the digital experiences it offered
  • Special Purpose Credit Programs
WEBVTT

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You're listening to Leaders and Lending from
Upstart, a podcast dedicated to helping consumer

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lenders grow their programs and improve their
product offerings. Each week, here,

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decision makers in the finance industry offer
insights into the future of the lending industry,

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best practices around digital transformation, and
more. Let's get into the show.

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All right, Well, thank you
guys for joining the podcast today.

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I'm joined today by Chris Christopher,
Chris, Chris Pushcar, Chris Pushcar and

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Christina. And what constitutions are you
guys with with Eastern Bank? Okay,

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excellent? And you guys are on
the Small Business Banking Committee here it's CBA

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correct one, chair and vice chair, Chair and vice chair excellent. We

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got all the power and knowledge in
the rooms to be a great conversation.

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I know you guys had the committee
meeting yesterday and I want to talk about

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like the number one things that were
on your mind. And I imagine a

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lot of the conversation had to center
around the kind of disruption in the banking

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environment that's happened due to the failure
of Silicon Valley Bank, the failure of

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at your bank, how customers are
reacting, what are you what are you

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hearing from that? Well, what's
the reaction been to those things? Yeah,

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it was a big topic of conversation
yesterday in our committee meeting, for

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sure, And I think there's a
couple of different things, right, So

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one is how can we help service
those customers if they choose another financial institution

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that they want to bank with.
And then secondarily the safety and soundness of

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our own financial institutions and really working
on retention of our clients, and then

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the safety and soundness of the industry
as a whole. I think those are

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really the big things that came up
yesterday. With that, you have a

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lot of deposits moving banks, and
so you know, as you think about

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that, you want to be able
to take on new clients but also retain

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your own. And then you're also
worrying a little bit about fraud and people

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having you know, account takeovers or
fraudulent wires, so you're really trying to

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protect clients against that as well.
Say, how has the trend been in

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the I imagine there's this immediate like
I got to pull my money out of

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the banks that are you know,
that are feeling And then how has the

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conversation evolved with clients of your own
banks, or what you're hearing from other

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members of the committee in terms of
like withdrawing funds for all just going,

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hey, I want to move to
one of the big guys that feel like

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they have an almost explicit guarantee if
we're all deposits, Like, how is

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that is that conversation involved with clients? How does it feel right now?

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Yeah? I mean I think it's
different for each client, right, So,

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I think some you have a simple
conversation and talk to them about the

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safety and soundness of your financial institution. They're satisfied with that. Other cases

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they want to take advantage of more
FDIC coverage and they have a product or

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service that can help them with that. And in some cases they do want

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to diversify and they want to take
a look at multiple banks for their relationships

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and maximize their FDIC coverage. So
you really just have to have a conversation

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and find out what's right for that
client. Yeah. Yeah, maybe.

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What I would add is a lot
of the banking that we do is relationship

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driven. So the trust, the
knowledge of the bank, the presence in

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the community, they know, they
know us, they sort of what we

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stand for. And what we're about. The folks that I feel like have

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a lot of questions are probably folks
that don't have the relationship, is close

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of relationship or the media has really
spun this to their advantage and they're getting

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a lot of hits and a lot
of likes and a lot of job but

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not everything that's being shared is understood. So it's just piecing together and having

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a person that they trust that they'll
have the conversation much. Yeah. It

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also reminds me why this like underlying
nervousness about this whole experience, in that

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I feel like community banks, while
often maligned by online I think a lot

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of was like a digital experience.
The big banks kind of have an advantage

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in investing, but in the small
supporting small businesses where really you do rely

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on relationships. I really worry if
we lose if this causes us to weaken

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our community banks, our regional banks, it'll really weaken our support for small

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businesses generally that really rely on those
relationship based banks in their communities to support

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them. And it's kind of that
would be a real blow to our ability

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to support small businesses and economy generally. If we were to lose support for

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the community banks because there was nervousness
about deposits and that caused them to go

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elsewhere. It's start and what we
have seen actually in the business bank space,

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that is the spot they're moving the
least they're moving retail because they all

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get it so easy. Yeah I'll
just get something online and I don't really

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care. I want the insurance.
In the commercial side, right, they're

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likely dealing with the CFO, may
or may not have a relationship, and

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moving billions is easy because they can
do it in chrunches. But we haven't

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seen the movement in the business banking
space interstically. And I've seen some,

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but not not nearly to the degree. And we actually heard from Furry knows

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and that is industry. Um uh, don't so that from the industry.

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Small business deposits have been a little
more, a little more spread out between

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larger financial institutions community banks and some
online banks as well, and some smaller

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credit unions. So I think that's
good news for us as a whole company.

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Have there been any when you see
a lot of inflows and outflows?

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I mean, the number one thing
that my mind gets made because I come

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from the technology space is like fraud, and that just looks like a moment

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where I go, hey, as
an attacker is as a bad actor,

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man, this is a moment where
a lot's happening, a lot could fall

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to the crack. It seems like
a time to attack it, so to

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speak. Not that it's not advice
for any with the attackers out there,

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but it seems like a moment where
you have excessive risk compared to maybe a

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normal environment. How are you seeing
increase in fraud and how are people adjusting

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to kind of trying to support inflows
and outflows that need to be done to

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support those businesses and also be careful
about fraud when people are moving in large

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sums of money and our frequent basis, Yeah, we haven't really seen it

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yet, but we are concerned about
it, and I think the key is

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to really make sure you have really
good conversations with your customers and advise them

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of potentially what's out there. There
are some products and solutions on the treasury

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services side that can help you protect
against fraud, but a lot of it

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is just your own internal controls as
well, and so we really try to

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be be mindful of that and have
those type of conversations with clients and it

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is fascinating. The biggest fraud that
we see is count takeover, so they

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perpetrate, they act like they're in
the business owner, tell their CFO.

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Right. So it's a tricky spot
because it's it's still the advising guidance that

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when you're connected to your bank,
like if you're and you have some of

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the services, you either see it
or you don't open the email or right,

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you sort of prevent that that takeover. But should it happen, then

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the hope and the expectation from the
bank is, hey, can you just

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help us with this when you fill
in what we lost because we you know,

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obviously we didn't direct this to happen. And it gets back down to

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relationship and just that tight connectivity which
you can't get from the biggest or the

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finchecks. Like they're not offering relationships, right, they're offenising great services.

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But that is that is our strongest
suit. Interesting, I wanted to maybe

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pivot away from recent troubles to longer
term trends short and I'd love to think

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about, like what are the innovations
you guys are seeing happening in the SMB

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space, like what are new products, new offerings, new capabilities. And

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one of the things that got me
thinking about this was the experience during PPP

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where we really like implemented new processes
digital processes, often very rapidly, some

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more successfully those It felt like this
kind of like accelerated learning moment, say

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hey, we can actually do something
pretty different if we have to, and

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customers actually, I mean there's like
think MC guarantees and all sorts of reasons

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that was a different kind of program. But I do think that the capability

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to quickly access lending and funding was
a really interesting moment in time where we

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saw that, we saw how customers
reacted. Do you see that driving trends

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towards faster adopt Like, what are
the trends you see in the SMP space

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in terms of products? Yeah,
I think there's a few. I think

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you hit probably the number one spot
on which is you know, coming out

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of PPP, the digital experience for
the customer was really end to end and

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they really appreciated that because it helps
with have simplicity, it helps with the

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speed, and I think there's a
demand for that, and so I think

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you'll see an increase in that right
now, some banks have that it's typically

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for smaller dollar loans, but I
think that will continue to grow. I

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don't know if you get the largest
of the large loans ever done that way,

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but certainly there's probably tens of million
CR loans. Are probably not the

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ones going instant digital. I'm probably
gonna right because it will take building.

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They need a two fifty to five
hundred thousand. Those are things that I

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think that you could look at.
I think the other thing is we see

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a big spike in demand for SBA
lending, so really understanding the programs that

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are offered through the SBA is really
important for your institution so you can offer

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those to your clients. And then
we're starting to hear a lot of information

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around special purpose credit programs, which
are really set up to serve the underserved

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community within small business businesses that are
owned by people of color, women,

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veterans, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and so those programs are gaining a

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lot of traction now and I think
that will be great for the industry as

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well. Do you have any thoughts
on much I had not heard this statement

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about SPA and are the SPCP of
special purpose credit programs. Well, do

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you know what's driving the demand?
Like is there something behind that or like

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what do you think is causing people
to be more interested in those programs?

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Right Nocause that's a really fascinating statement, and I was like totally unaware.

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So I'm just kind of curious what's
underlying that. It's our ability to serve

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more people most products. So it
just really opens up the number of folks

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that we can help because the guarantees
allow us to be able to be much

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more generous scrutiny like time in business, right, like we'd want to see

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more history with a traditional Yeah,
we can do more to help serve them.

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Yeah. I think there was some
information too that was obtained through PPP

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where some of those underserved communities weren't
provided PPP loans as quickly as maybe they

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should have through the funding process.
You know. I think that that put

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some heat and light on the industry
to make sure that we found a solution

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to help those borrowers. And so
I think that plays into also what Christina

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is mentioning and then the SBA trends. I mean, I think that there's

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some great programs out there that if
you partner well with the SBA on programs,

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you can probably lend more customers than
the typically would be comfortable with because

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they provide guarantees on the loans,
and so I think really trying to use

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those products to get more money out
into the small business community is essential.

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So I'm going to ask this question, how does one partner well with the

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SBA. I mean, I think
one of the big complaints I heard around

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PPP was just it changed a lot
and then the integration would like the guarantee

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is getting it was not easy.
And I feel like this is the same

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question I ask people about fintech partnerships, which is like, I feel like

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there's times that it gets that it
works well, and times that it kind

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of gets it's a great idea,
and then it doesn't go anywhere. It

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kind of sits on this shelf and
doesn't get used because there's not a good

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sense of partnership and like a real
operating rhythm. And so do you have

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you said that if you do SPA
partnership, So I'm curious, what do

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you have advice on how one does
partner well with the SPA or make these

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things more or less or if you're
approaching an SPCP and that's a very specific

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kind of program that I think can
feel risky or a little nervous people to

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emplay like how do you do that
well? Like what are the secrets at

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tips to like actually execute well in
that space. Yeah, I think with

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SBA, I think one of the
things is first of all, having a

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strategy around it. It's hard to
just sort of dabble in SPA lending because

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you really need to stay on top
of the SPAH make sure you're following the

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program guidelines, and so having a
strategy I think is core for number one.

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Number two, I would advise have
a good relationship with your local SBA

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office, can bounce questions off of
them or scenarios off of them, and

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they can provide you feedback and insight. And then I think you need to

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have good controls in place to make
sure that you're not putting those SBA guarantees

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at risk from the servicing work that
you do behind the scenes. And I

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think if you do those things well, it's a very beneficial program for both

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us and our customers. That's exactly
right. I agree with everything you said.

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What you when you get the experience
under like going from you know,

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doing a few to doing hundreds is
a very easy transition, and you have

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those controls and and the folks in
place that this is not a place where

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you try to reduce staffing and hope
that it all goes well. You staff

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appropriately, you follow the controls,
and you can really scal it very quickly

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in a meaningful way. Fascinating.
Is there a reason now that I mean,

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you mentioned PPP, but do you
think there's a reason that interest in

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these things is increasing at the moment? And I want to kind of wrap

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that in with a general question around
demand around small business line thing because you

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know, I think you've got the
committee was talking about some trends around demand,

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talking to a little about like what's
driving demand and why you think those

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programs are particular saying more demand now
as it driven buyer experiences and pp and

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the real PPP and the realization that
there's people out there that need these funds

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that we weren't serving before, or
is there some underlying business reason that people

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are kind of like, hey,
this is a moment to really invest in

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these things. Yeah, I mean, I think in terms of loan demand,

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just to start there, I think
that's a tricky topic right now.

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I think it's a very uncertain for
this year and possibly into next year because

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of all of the challenges right now
in the economic environment that we have,

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which is rising interest rates, inflation, labor shortages, supply chain issues.

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So the willingness or a desire for
small business to borrow money right now is

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a little uncertain because they're dealing with
uncertain time. So we'll sort of see

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where that lands. But I think, you know, when you think about

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the sp CPS and serving underserved communities
within small business, I think there is

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a demand for what we have sort
of already talked about. But also I

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think you know, SBA has also
come out and said they want to be

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able to help banks funnel more dollars
into the communities, both in terms of

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underserved communities but also just small business
in general. And so you know,

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really trying to think about ways to
get creative to lend more money to our

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customers who are in need, I
think is critical well said, and I

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think they want advising guidance, so
very more interested in taking time to spend

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with their bankers now and getting that. So we feel really good about making

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a difference in spending time and having
those interactions and is Chris shared probably your

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larger, more stable clients or funding
their own transactions and acquisitions or whatever investments

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are making in their business. So
it's a perfect balance because there's capacity in

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the market and this is a place
we can make it difference. Yeah.

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I do love that focus on making
a difference to the communities that the regional

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Community banks. It's just it's really
nice. It is. It's was one

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of the big surprises for me.
I was surprised. It's going to sound

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bad when I say it this way, but like coming from tech into banking,

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you kind of there's not always a
great perspective of tech in the world

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now generally, but of banking,
and you kind of you when you get

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inside the world of banking, small
business banking, community banking, consumer banking,

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and you realize that people are really
just trying to like that's not exactly

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living and gets a wonderful life,
but out they're trying to support the communities

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and businesses prudently, but as much
as we can. All right, I

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want to ask about one more technical
thing, which is I know there's a

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discussion about ten seventy one rulemaking final
rules for the uninitiator, not in the

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space. What is the ten seventy
one? What is the process is going

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on? And what are we talking
about there? Yeah, so if you're

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familiar at all with HUMDA, which
is I'm familiar with HUMDA, all right,

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we're a good starting point, yep. So they're trying to capture sort

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of race and gender information a time
of application and sort of trying to replicate

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something like that on the small business
side. Interesting, so when they can

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take a look at application data,
they can see then more clearly, you

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know, are there certain races or
genders that are not being served the way

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that maybe some others are right,
And so it's a way to really sort

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of safeguard that fair lending is taking
place as much as possible in the small

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business community. So we're anxiously awaiting
a final ruling. It's due by March

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thirty first, and so once we
get that ruling, we're right up against

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the wire. Once we get that
ruling, then we all have, we

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believe, eighteen months to implement those
processes, and you have to be able

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to capture the information upfront, but
also to be able to provide reporting the

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reporting on it exactly. Any thoughts
on what's going to follow on from that,

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because there's the kind of there's the
capturing the data, there's the reporting

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of the data, and then there's
the are we happy with what the data

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is telling us? And what are
we going to do about in the areas

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where maybe we're not happy? And
that's an area I mean, we've spent

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to be honest, that ups are
a lot of time because I think there's

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this very tricky issue, to be
honest, approval rates, actual credit worthiness

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of the underlying applicants, the applicant
pool versus the maybe demographic pool of small

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business owners in your community. What's
the sense of what follows on from and

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reporting on the data in terms of
actions or expectations about what the data is

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telling us. Yeah, I mean
I think it's a multi step process,

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right, So first is implementation.
Second, then you have to go through

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process of a period of time of
actually getting meaningful data. Won't you know,

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in the first few weeks, maybe
even in the first few months,

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you won't have it, but certainly
six months a year you'll start to have

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that data. I think it'll be
interesting for the industry as a whole.

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To see sort of where everything lies. And then as your own financial institution,

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how do you compare to the overall
averages? And from there you may

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implement strategies to do things differently,
to either improve things, or change things

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or tweak things. So I think
as a whole it's going to be a

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really interesting exercise, for sure.
I would add I agree they've been Chris

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said, that's why some of these
special purpose programs are so critical. If

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we can do these at the same
time and align those like, hopefully we'll

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all be happier with some of the
outcomes, for sure. So we're in

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New York State, So the first
move on it is we're interested to find

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out how consistent with ten seventy one
in term of implementation, because some of

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the things New York State wants us
to collect in New York is not legal

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to collect another places. How do
we marry the two together and make sure

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that the customer experience isn't wildly different
depending on in the banker's experience if you

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have a remote banker, where they're
coming in from. Because try really hard

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to do the right thing by everyone
at a time of application and sort of

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through fulfillment. So that the cadence
of some of the additional things being rolled

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out, it will be interesting to
see what we learn because New York State

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is going to go first. What
do we learn and then how do we

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hopefully learn and help is the ten
seventy one ruling continues to follow on a

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New York likes to be first.
DFS is a little a little aggressive on

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that, and it is difficult if
you operate in multiple jurisdictions to have you

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can have rules where you're required to
do this here and prohibited from doing it

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there, and that becomes very hard, particularly in a world where at least

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some of our transactions are virtually mediated. So maybe the banker is supporting customers

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in both states going I don't want
to do the wrong thing. I'm trying

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to do the right thing. But
man, it's not easy when the rules

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very so much does exactly right.
New scale that the technology that we will

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all use to support it, whether
it's you know it's now or you know,

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um, folks are doing a really
great job of helping build this in.

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It's going to take them time too
held it in, and so we're

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trying to do a bridge and sort
of them a manual way of doing it

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in the meantime. So we're hoping
for some grace in that period, but

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we're certainly all want to do the
right thing and do more loans in this

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space. Has anybody been looking,
I'm just you can just tell me know.

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But you know, there is the
like the CFPB you published the BISG

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methodology to estimate ethnicity, race gender
from applicant. You know, I think

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it takes like zip in last name
roughly um, And I'm curious if anybody,

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if anybody has been previewing what they're
ten seventy one results might look like,

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because you can, like, it's
not the same as collecting the way

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home it is, but you can
kind of like get too roughly the same

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point with approximations doing that at least
understand what does that look like. I'm

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curious if that's something the industry has
been like trying to get a preview on

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where they're going to land by using
some of that methodology. If you're just

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going to implement the final rulemaking and
then and see where we land. Yeah,

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I mean, I think it's hard
to speak for every financial institution.

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For my own personally, we absolutely
have and We've actually lost a special purpose

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credit program just a few weeks ago, so we had to get data from

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our institution to justify the program and
get it approved. So we definitely did.

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I would be surprised if most institutions
aren't either thinking about an SPCP or

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at least preparing for ten seventy one
and saying, you know, give me

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an estimation of sort of how we
fall here, where do we think we're

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going to land to start? But
we did a similar think being with the

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New York statedf so we had to
get out in front of it. So

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we are feeling good about you know, where we're at and some of the

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initiatves we were taken in that space
as well. Awesome. Well, let

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me as we come to the end
of this conversation, what are other big

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trends or topics we should talk about
when it call it comes to a small

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business bank. I mean, we've
kind of had the things are on my

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list, but what's is there anything
else that's top of mind for you guys

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or you think that's a big emerging
trend it's going to be impacting the space

321
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the next year or two. Yeah, I mean, the only thing I

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can really think of other than what
we've spoken about is really just providing customers

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information, right, And I think
we think a lot of products and services

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and we need to do that as
well. But I think small businesses are

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looking for information about how to run
their business more effectively, more efficiently,

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how do I grow? And so
a lot of banks are thinking about education

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00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:22.240
for their small business clients. And
that can be done through a website,

328
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:26.160
it could be done through seminars,
it can be done through your sales staff

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and making sure they're educated to be
able to have those types of conversations.

330
00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:33.000
Most likely banks are probably looking at
all the above in some way, shape

331
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or form. But I would think
that would be the other big trend in

332
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the industry that I think we're looking
at over the next year or so.

333
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:42.400
That's spot on, I would I
would say. The thing I would add

334
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is it'll be really important that we
help navigate customers through these inflationary times.

335
00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:52.000
Just Chris shared some of that we
talked about yesterday. This is a really

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difficult time for a lot of small
business owners. But whether they borrowed and

337
00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:00.640
now it's just so much more expensive, or the labor how do we help

338
00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:07.319
through the advice and guidance and education
navigate probably just like all the banks,

339
00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:10.519
not all the small businesses make it. But how do we do our part

340
00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:14.400
to keep them as successful for as
long as possible, or how do we

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help them find other partners to maybe
come together with our industry experts, Like

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00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:23.279
how do we do our part to
be the convener so they can continue to

343
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run their business? Yeah, it
is kind of It is crazy to think

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about the economic environment that we live
in. It's very disruptive. And I

345
00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:37.279
saw this really ridiculous to me comment
somewhere that like, you know, depositors

346
00:21:37.319 --> 00:21:41.039
should lose their money in the context
for bank run because it was their job

347
00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:44.440
to be choosing the bank they worked
with. By looking at the finance,

348
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I thought, your perspective is that
the CFO of a small business should be

349
00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:52.440
looking at the balance sheet of local
banks and determining who's making the most prudent

350
00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:56.200
risk management decisions in terms of interest
rate risks with their excess deposits, and

351
00:21:56.200 --> 00:21:57.960
that's the balance on the system.
Is Like, I think they're just trying

352
00:21:57.960 --> 00:22:00.599
to figure out how to manage their
own sheet through this, and they're not

353
00:22:00.599 --> 00:22:04.559
so worried about it because it is
it's kind of unbelievable think that we're supposed

354
00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:07.480
to be looking at the interest rate
hedges that SPB maybe could have put on

355
00:22:07.799 --> 00:22:11.440
the bonds that were buying, or
whether they were buying too many long duration

356
00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:12.599
bonds at too low of a time, Like, yeah, I don't think

357
00:22:12.599 --> 00:22:17.519
that was a small They get their
own things to worry about. We should

358
00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:19.000
be helping them through that as opposed
to asking them to be our safety and

359
00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:22.880
soundness check on the asset management the
bank they're working with. Well, and

360
00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:27.240
you hear some conversations too around well, these businesses shouldn't have had more than

361
00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:30.799
two hundred and fifty thousand than any
one institution, and it's very difficult for

362
00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:33.680
small businesses to do when they're working
about, you know, making payroll,

363
00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:37.680
paying their vendors, they have money
coming in, Like it's not just easy

364
00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:41.640
to park two fifty or two fifty
or two fifty here. So I think

365
00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:44.519
to your point, you know,
they make the best decisions that they can

366
00:22:44.599 --> 00:22:47.400
with the information there they have,
but you know, they're worried about running

367
00:22:47.400 --> 00:22:49.839
their own small business and they wear
multiple hats within that, so it's tough

368
00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:52.880
for them to keep track with everything
that's happening to the mark in the banking

369
00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:57.680
and environment. Yeah, yeah,
and I totally agree, And I think

370
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there's this kind of weirdness to that
answered, like wow, they should have

371
00:23:00.440 --> 00:23:04.799
opened accountable like that just is very
strange to me. Regulatory arbitrage that's taking

372
00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:08.599
place that doesn't doesn't really meet the
spirit of what the insurance has meant to

373
00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:11.599
do, like, oh, I'll
actually ensure all your money just work with

374
00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:15.079
a whole bunch of different banks and
spread it around Like that feels weird,

375
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and so I just wonder if there'sn't
gonna be some change in the way regulars.

376
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And I don't like you guys say
this, but I think if we're

377
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saying, hey, well we really
introduce just open up accounts with ten banks

378
00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:26.240
and then somebody's going to come in
and be a digital layer that like automatically

379
00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:29.400
spread your money that we've just we're
not really adding anything. We've just added

380
00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:30.799
a whole bunch of complexity to the
land in the same place, and we

381
00:23:30.839 --> 00:23:33.480
ought to find a simpler way to
help people. It is true, like

382
00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:37.480
doesn't take a very large business to
need more than two hundred and fifty thousand

383
00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:41.480
just to make monthly payroll, let
alone accounts receivable or invoice payments for a

384
00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:44.319
different thing, like, that's not
that much money in the context of a

385
00:23:44.359 --> 00:23:48.359
business is paying a decent number of
people, and I don't think it's unreasonable

386
00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:51.119
for them to expect when they put
it into Like I was kind of stunned

387
00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:52.920
when my financial advisor called me and
said, Jeff, we got some money

388
00:23:52.920 --> 00:23:56.559
in the check account. We want
you to move it out because it's safer

389
00:23:56.960 --> 00:23:59.920
in a money market And I thought, Man, what world do we come

390
00:24:00.119 --> 00:24:02.680
to where I'm getting the advice to
pull my money out of a checking account

391
00:24:02.680 --> 00:24:06.200
and put into a money market account
for safety, not for yield, for

392
00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:10.480
safety, And I thought, well, that's that's an interesting It's an interesting

393
00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:12.400
time, and I think we're going
to have to support the small businesses and

394
00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:15.359
the consumers that like consumers about more
than two fifty thousand dollars in the bank

395
00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:19.720
account, I feel like are relatively
savvy typically and understanding the risks are taking.

396
00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:22.960
But the small business that's not a
massive business, and it does not

397
00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:26.000
make sense to me that we're putting
them at the risk for Like, having

398
00:24:26.039 --> 00:24:30.079
looked at the balance sheet and the
different asset purchases, by the bank that

399
00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:32.880
they're working with. That just seems
crazy. Yeah. Absolutely, and it's

400
00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:34.319
fluid. It's not like they put
it in their ones and set it like

401
00:24:34.519 --> 00:24:38.319
to continuously expect the small business owners
to look at all the transaction. Yeah.

402
00:24:38.359 --> 00:24:41.680
I pull up that quarterly report in
my bank every every quarter and go,

403
00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:45.200
hey, what what are you guys
doing? I mean tread ten year

404
00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:48.000
treasuries? Why we should be in
the twos and being the twos man?

405
00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:51.839
It's the interest rates are moving like
that. I don't I think that's the

406
00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:55.640
right expectation. Well, thank you
guys both so much for joining to say,

407
00:24:55.680 --> 00:24:57.119
this was a fascinating conversation. I
certainly learned a lot. I'm sure

408
00:24:57.119 --> 00:25:00.240
the audience as well, So I
appreciate you to tech the time to do

409
00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:03.400
it. Thanks for having us.
Upstart partners with banks and credit unions to

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help grow their consumer loan portfolios and
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