The following conversations took place during our March 24, 2025, event, Advancing Innovation and Fairness in Small Business Finance. Click “Learn More” for more information about each discussion, including speaker bios, additional resources, transcripts, and audio.
Opening Remarks and a Conversation with Michael Barr
Driving Innovation in Small Business Lending
Ensuring that Innovation Benefits Small Businesses: The Role of Guardrails
About This Event
Ten years ago, when the Responsible Business Lending Coalition was founded, the nation was experiencing dramatic changes in the small business financing landscape, stemming in part from market adjustments after the Great Recession. Ten years later, the forces driving change are accelerating. The growth in new technologies, including AI; the aftermath of the COVID pandemic; and unprecedented growth in new small businesses starting are only some of the factors shaping the market.
Yet the challenge remains: how do we harness the power of technology and innovation to drive greater prosperity and inclusion for small business owners, while ensuring that financial products support small businesses rather than undermine them?
Join us on March 24 to hear and share perspectives from lenders, investors, policymakers, small business owners, and advocates about how to build a financing market that truly works for small businesses. This event will feature three moderated conversations highlighting key trends, opportunities and challenges in the small business financing market, followed by a reception that will provide the opportunity for attendees to explore this issue in greater detail with fellow stakeholders.
Sponsors
We thank our colleagues at Community Investment Management for their generous support of this event.
The following conversations took place during our March 24, 2025, event, Advancing Innovation and Fairness in Small Business Finance. Click “Learn More” for more information about each discussion, including speaker bios, additional resources, transcripts, and audio.
Opening Remarks and a Conversation with Michael Barr
Driving Innovation in Small Business Lending
Ensuring that Innovation Benefits Small Businesses: The Role of Guardrails
About This Event
Ten years ago, when the Responsible Business Lending Coalition was founded, the nation was experiencing dramatic changes in the small business financing landscape, stemming in part from market adjustments after the Great Recession. Ten years later, the forces driving change are accelerating. The growth in new technologies, including AI; the aftermath of the COVID pandemic; and unprecedented growth in new small businesses starting are only some of the factors shaping the market.
Yet the challenge remains: how do we harness the power of technology and innovation to drive greater prosperity and inclusion for small business owners, while ensuring that financial products support small businesses rather than undermine them?
Join us on March 24 to hear and share perspectives from lenders, investors, policymakers, small business owners, and advocates about how to build a financing market that truly works for small businesses. This event will feature three moderated conversations highlighting key trends, opportunities and challenges in the small business financing market, followed by a reception that will provide the opportunity for attendees to explore this issue in greater detail with fellow stakeholders.
Sponsors
We thank our colleagues at Community Investment Management for their generous support of this event.
