This Harvard Business School White Paper is laid out in three major sections:
Chapters 1 and 2 describe the importance of small business to the U.S. economy and lay out the current state of access to credit for small businesses from traditional banks.
Chapters 3 and 4 detail the fast growing new market for online lending to small business, and put forward our views on what strategies will differentiate the winners from the losers. We describe the multiple types of partnerships that are evolving between the new entrants and established players as the online market enters a new phase of its evolution.
Chapters 5 and 6 focus on the current U.S. regulatory environment and detail a Regulatory Action Plan with six recommendations we see as the most appropriate actions necessary to create a well-functioning and robust market for small businesses to access the credit they need in order to grow and create jobs.