科技挂帅，互联网金融吹响颠覆小企业贷款市场号角

    Twitter联合创始人杰克•多西灵感的产物、移动支付技术公司Square最近宣布向小企业提供现金垫款。考虑到它的移动支付平台已开始帮助小企业处理信用卡支付，这一步看起来自然而然。但值得强调的是，Square Capital是科技推进新型小企业贷款市场的最新代表。

    创新者们相信，颠覆是件好事情。而且，很多人将告诉你，没有比银行业更需要颠覆的行业了。实际上，早在20年前，比尔•盖茨就曾不无讥讽地说过，“零售银行业是堪称恐龙的老古董。”但是，如今我们还是像1994年这位微软（Microsoft）前CEO做出上述评论时一样，从传统银行申请贷款。

    不要误解我的意思，传统银行帮助营造了小企业经济，让数百万人可以追求自己的美国梦。但多年来一成不变的是，贷款流程效率低下，推动产生高成本。现实原因有两个：1)有意愿借款和有意愿放贷的双方很难找到对；。2)小企业的信用风险很难评估。

    自从2007年，科技为借贷打开了新市场，有可能像改变旅游、零售和其他行业一样改变这个市场。自从经济大衰退之后，对这些新型平台的利用一直不断增加，原因是始终感觉银行仍不愿进行放贷，或者，这些新放贷机构有更高的效率提供资本。抑或两者兼而有之。

    市场上有像OnDeck Capital和Kabbage这样的网上资产负债表贷款机构，它们通常提供9个月以下的短期贷款。它们提供的资本类似于现金垫付，同时收取固定金额或每天从借款人账户的销售额中抽取固定的比例。

    Lending Club、Prosper、Funding Circle和Fundation这类公司则使用对等模式。在个人投资者的支持下，这些公司基于私有信用模式做出贷款决定，通常提供期限更长一点，至多25万美元的贷款，利率在8%至24%。这些贷款通过个人担保或企业资产抵押。

    或许最有意思的一种模式是，像Lendio和Fundera这样的公司建立起它们自己的市场。小企业可以在这里实现购买，同时将网上贷款机构与传统银行提供的贷款产品进行对比。通过这种做法，它们降低了借款人和贷款机构面临的最大难题——搜寻成本。

    值得指出的重要一点是，这些贷款机构仅占市场的很小的一部分——在超过6,000亿美元的小企业贷款市场中还不到100亿美元。但它们正在推动根本性的变革，借助科技提升效率，使得贷款机构从那些通常低于25万美元的小企业贷款中也可以赚到利润。

    我们也看到小企业主愿意通过这些新平台获得资本，尽管这么做通常价格更贵，因为它们把易操作性也计入了价值。其中很多新平台通过网络或移动应用进行审批，对于一些低额贷款，最快可以在24小时内就迅速完成审批。相比之下，传统流程需要几周的时间，同时还要求提供大量文件。

    诚然，这个新兴市场存在合法化问题。我们不希望小企业贷款市场疯狂发展，而且监管机构和决策层也应当考虑如何防止腐败和经济风险。但这并不意味着它就不是突破。

    小企业创造了美国三分之二的新增工作机会。而纽约联邦储备银行（Federal Reserve Bank of New York）2013年的一项调查显示，大多数小企业主表示，获得资本是他们实现增长的首要难题。因此，他们很可能没尽其所能投资。这意味着，如果我们想让我们的就业市场走上正轨的话，他们没有按照我们经济所需要的速度创造出新的工作机会。

    这个新兴市场在真正最需要的领域注入了经济复苏的活力。而且有些人表示，最最重要的是，它是市场、而不是政府推动产生的。（财富中文网）

    本文作者凯伦•米尔斯是哈佛商学院和哈佛肯尼迪政府学院的高级研究员，专注于竞争力、企业家精神和创新的研究。她还曾是奥巴马总统内阁成员，在2009年至2013年担任美国中小企业管理局局长。

    Square, a brainchild of Twitter TWTR 0.48% co-founder Jack Dorsey, recently announced it would start making cash advances to small businesses. The move seems like a natural next step, considering that the mobile payment platform started helping small businesses process credit card payments. What’s worth highlighting, though, is that Square Capital is the latest example of technology driving a new market for small business loans.

    Innovators believe disruption is a good thing. And many will tell you there’s no market more overdue for disruption than the banking industry. In fact, it was 20 years ago that Bill Gates quipped that “Retail banks are dinosaurs.” Yet, today we still apply for loans at traditional banks in the same way we did in 1994 when the former Microsoft MSFT -0.17% CEO made that comment.

    Don’t get me wrong, traditional banks have helped create a small business economy that has allowed millions to pursue their version of the American Dream. But over the years what has persisted is a loan process built around inefficiencies that drive high costs due to two realities: 1) It is difficult for willing lenders and borrowers to find each other. 2) Small business credit risk is hard to assess.

    Since 2007, technology has spawned new markets for lending, potentially transforming this industry in the same way it has travel, retail and others. The use of these new platforms has been on the rise since the Great Recession, due to either the ongoing feeling that banks remain unwilling to lend or that these new lenders are providing capital with greater efficiency. Or both.

    There are the online balance sheet lenders – like OnDeck Capital and Kabbage – that typically offer short-term loans of less than nine months. The capital they provide is similar to a cash advance, with a fixed amount or percent of sales deduction each day from the borrower’s bank account.

    Companies like Lending Club, Prosper, Funding Circle and Fundation are using a peer-to-peer model. Backed by individual investors, these companies make loan decisions based on proprietary credit models, typically offering loans of up to $250,000 for longer terms at between 8% to 24%. These loans are collateralized through personal guarantees or business assets.

    Perhaps the most interesting model is one in which companies like Lendio and Fundera are simply creating their own marketplaces where small businesses can shop and compare loan products from online lenders and conventional banks. In doing so, they’re mitigating one of the biggest problems borrowers and lenders face – search costs.

    It’s important to note that these lenders still only account for a small portion of the market – less than $10 billion in a more than $600 billion small business lending market. But they are driving fundamental change, making the typical small business loan – one of less than $250,000 – more profitable for lenders by leveraging technology to drive efficiency.

    We are also seeing small business owners willing to get capital through these new platforms, even though it’s often more expensive, because they value the convenience. Many of these new platforms are making approvals online and via mobile applications in as fast as 24 hours for some lower dollar loans, compared to a traditional process that takes several weeks and requires stacks of paperwork.

    To be sure, there are legitimate questions about this emerging market. We don’t want small business lending to run amuck, and regulators and policy makers should be asking how to prevent fraud and economic risk. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t a breakthrough.

    Small businesses create two-thirds of the net new jobs in the United States. Yet a 2013 Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey noted that most small business owners say access to capital is their top growth concern. As a result, they probably aren’t investing like they could, which means they aren’t creating new jobs at the rate our economy needs if we want the job market to return to normal.

    This emerging market is adding momentum to the economic recovery in exactly the area where it’s most needed. And some will say the best thing about it is that the market is driving it, not government.

    Karen Mills is a senior fellow with the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government focused on competitiveness, entrepreneurship and innovation. She was a member of President Obama’s Cabinet, serving as Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2009 to 2013.