If you’re in the banking or small business industry, you’re more than likely aware of the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that begins today, Friday, April 3rd, 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. This program is designed to help small businesses.
Scams are always abundant in this day and age, but COVID-19 has quickly brought about societal shifts full of financial and economic uncertainty and of scared and vulnerable people, and scammers are already working the cause. Scam artists are always looking for opportunities to steal money and data from people and businesses, especially financial institutions. And this time is no different.
Credit scores are a big deal. They’re used to determine if you can buy or rent a house, get a car, or even some jobs. FICO is implementing extensive changes to credit score calculations that will affect millions of Americans. An estimated 40 million Americans will see their score drop by 20 or more points, and equally as many might see as large of an increase.1
Travel bans are in place, schools are closed, sport activities have been cancelled. Large parts of the economy have been shut down, and it came as a complete shock to many people. The fear of the unknown is driving a lot of these shifts, but Senior Fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute, Olga Jonas, a pandemic economist, says everything happening so far is as anticipated.
We’re getting a lot of mixed messages about a coming recession. On one hand, the Gross Domestic Product is higher than expected and the unemployment rate is at a historic low. We’ve been seeing a lot of economic growth that suggests we’re headed in the right direction. But on the other hand, many experts suggest we are at risk for a recession.
“Fintech” is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “computer programs and other technology used to support or enable banking and financial services.” This takes shape in a broad array of products and services.
Traditional thinking says that the risk banks make lending to small companies rarely outweighs the profits. Recent relationships between the small business community and fintech startups are causing lenders to reevaluate this line of thought.
In July 2016, in the small town of Duncan, Arizona, the last bank branch in the town closed its doors. They direct traffic to their nearest branch… 40 miles away. It is a popular belief nowadays that bank branches are on their way out and digital banking is taking its place, but are we looking at the whole picture? Don’t community banks offer a lot more to the communities they serve than just a place to make deposits?
The Bureau of Economic Analysis recently released its advance estimate for the United States GDP for the fourth quarter of 2019, as well as the entire 2019 calendar year. They estimate real GDP grew at an annual rate of 2.1% in Q4 and 2.3% over the entire year. There were gains in both consumer spending and residential investment, a good sign for future economic expansion.
First Principles thinking is an idea popularized by entrepreneur Elon Musk, although it has roots with other minds like philosopher Aristotle, inventor Johannes Gutenberg, and military strategist John Boyd.3 First principles thinking is like taking a scientific approach to your thought processes. A first principle was defined by Aristotle as, “the first basis from which a thing is known.”3 As Musk describes, “you kind of boil things down to the most fundamental truths […] and then reason up from there.”2