Big banks have always been averse to risk.  They also tend to view small and medium-sized businesses as high-risk, choosing to restrict investment, in terms of both lending and services, for the SMB market. A 2015 credit survey by the Federal Reserve found that smaller institutions were 18 percent more likely to approve a small business loan than big banks, while SMBs that did work with big banks reported an uninspiring 51 percent satisfaction rating.

While banks are not always helpful to SMBs, there are other options for the services they deliver.  The good news for SMBs is that everything from small business loans to payments, payroll to point of point of sale suddenly has competition in the form of fintech.  Fintech is creating competition in a financial services market which would have seemed highly inhospitable to budding providers just a few years ago.  Some fintech companies are thriving providing specialized, effective services, from lending to payments and everything else SMBs need to thrive.