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"Property mogul Barry Sternlicht last week said there’s $1.2 trillion of real estate losses in offices alone and “nobody knows exactly where it all is.” Investors are growing alarmed that smaller banks might be on the hook for much of the wipeout." "Concerns mounted over the past two weeks after New York Community Bancorp, under pressure from a US watchdog, slashed its dividend to help stockpile funds in case commercial real estate loans go bad. And property values may have room to fall further, only adding to the pain for lenders: research firm Green Street estimated this week that appraised values of properties may need to drop another 10% to reach fair valuations. The turmoil is a blow for landlords and bankers who were waiting for lower borrowing costs to ease the pain, embracing the mantra of ‘Survive Til ‘25.’ While that looked a good bet a couple of months ago, the robustness of the economy may cause the Federal Reserve to cut rates at a slower pace than markets had expected, increasing the risk of write downs at smaller lenders after they pushed into commercial real estate lending in recent years. Here are six charts that show where we stand and how we got here:" https://finance.yahoo.com/news/six-charts-explain-cre-debt-200000488.html

All, We have published a new News Feed page, under the Forum tab it will drop down. We are still testing the content and would like any feedback you have for the type of news you want, nationally and globally. https://www.funderintel.com/news-feed

Next up, the Senate. Which is no guarantee it passes. But it still shows the direction the government is taking against Tiktok and other companies that are controlled by adversarial countries. Our blog posted last night covered this. https://www.funderintel.com/post/tiktok-ban-bill-a-potential-blow-to-business-loan-brokers

SoFi Pushed Into Profitability by Strong Results From Lending and Technology Platforms Not easily found is info on their new marketplace for business loans. https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/earnings-call-sofi-technologies-posts-record-q4-results-eyes-2024-growth-93CH-3286691

Vergent LMS, a leading provider of loan management solutions, has introduced OmniaText, a robust communication platform designed for banks, credit unions, and consumer finance lenders. OmniaText streamlines lender-borrower communication and enhances the customer experience through real-time, personalized messaging. The OmniaText platform allows lenders and accounts receivable managers to engage with borrowers in real-time via one-way or two-way SMS text messaging. With OmniaText, they will be better able to issue welcome messages, payment reminders and promotions. Vergent’s new communication platform also features MMS for secure document exchange and URL shortening, which enable safe and efficient communication with borrowers. “OmniaText, one of the world leading texting solutions, has connected with our consumers in many different ways,” said Quita Williams, Regional Manager of 1st Capital Finance of South Carolina. “OmniaText has allowed us to be more efficient with our consumers at the most important steps of our business needs. OmniaText provides value while offering best-in-class customer service, which was one of our most important decision-making factors among all the other texting solution companies.” OmniaText offers several other features to improve the communication experience: • Two-Way Text Conversations: Facilitate direct, real-time engagement, allowing lenders to address borrower inquiries instantly and build stronger relationships. • Comprehensive Tracking: Capture a detailed record of every communication, enabling lenders to review, analyze, and optimize their messaging strategies. • Automated Communication Manager: Automate routine communication workflows with custom triggers, templates, and mass-text capabilities to reach customers with the right message at the right time. • Customer-Managed Preferences: Empower borrowers with opt-in/opt-out controls for marketing and transactional texts, ensuring communication preferences are always respected. • Built-in Customer Data Verification: Verify borrower contact details seamlessly within OmniaText to reduce errors and maintain up-to-date records. • Compliance-Driven Features: OmniaText ensures lenders’ communication and payment processes adhere to the strictest industry regulations with our built-in compliance features. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241113899286/en/Vergent-LMS-Launches-OmniaText-Transforming-Communications-for-Lenders

Payments giant Stripe has acquired a four-year-old competitor, Lemon Squeezy, the latter company announced last Friday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. As a merchant of record, Lemon Squeezy calculates and pays global sales tax for digital products, handling legal processing and fees in every country. It primarily serves SaaS and software businesses. In a post on X, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison announced the acquisition, saying, “Welcome @lmsqueezy! We’re going to scale merchant of record selling in a big way.” And Chief Product Officer Will Gaybrick shared in his own post: “When asked “what should Stripe ship next?” many of you’ve said merchant of record. The Lemon Squeezy team has built an excellent MoR product, and we’re excited to work together with them to help more of you launch to grow!” In a blog post, Lemon Squeezy co-founder and CEO JR Farr noted that since his 13-person company’s public launch in 2021, that it received “many acquisition offers and (Series A) term sheets from investors.” In one podcast, Farr specifically discussed turning down a $50 million Series A term sheet. (It’s not clear how much, if any, venture funding the startup has raised.) https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/26/stripe-acquires-payment-processing-startup-lemon-squeezy/

Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother have been indicted in South Florida on federal charges of committing more than $1 million worth of fraud. Kingston, 34, and his mother, 61-year-old Janice Turner, made their first appearances Friday in federal court, according to court records. A Miami grand jury returned an indictment earlier this month accusing Kingston and his mother of participating in a scheme to defraud victims of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry and other goods through the use of fraudulent documents. Kingston was booked into the Broward County jail on similar state charges last month following a May 23 arrest at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California’s Mojave Desert where he was performing. Turner was arrested the same day as her son, when a SWAT team raided his rented mansion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. According to the federal indictment, Kingston and Turner falsely claimed that they had executed bank wire or other monetary payment transfers for high-end items when no such transfers had taken place. Investigators said Kingston and Turner then kept over $1 million worth of fraudulently purchased items despite not paying for them. The warrants for the state charges say that from October to March, they stole almost $500,000 in jewelry, more than $200,000 from Bank of America, $160,000 from a Cadilac Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank and $86,000 from the maker of customized beds. The Jamaican American performer had a No. 1 hit with “Beautiful Girls” in 2007 and collaborated with Justin Bieber on the song “Eenie Meenie.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sean-kingston-mother-indicted-fraud-scheme_n_669b2f11e4b07f2755f4836d

A federal judge has blocked the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on noncompete agreements that make it difficult for workers to join their employers’ rivals or launch competing businesses. The ruling prevents the FTC’s ban on noncompete agreements from taking effect on September 4th, though the agency could still appeal the decision. On Tuesday, US District Judge Ada Brown in Dallas, Texas ruled that the antitrust agency exceeded its statutory authority to ban practices related to unfair methods of competition, saying the noncompete agreements ban is “unreasonably overbroad without a reasonable explanation,” and would “cause irreparable harm.” Brown’s decision now stops the FTC from blocking noncompetes nationwide after initially delaying the ban with a preliminary injunction in July. According to the FTC, around 30 million people — one in five Americans — have signed noncompete agreements. A federal judge in Pennsylvania had previously declined to block the ban in a separate case last month. “We are disappointed by Judge Brown’s decision and will keep fighting to stop noncompetes that restrict the economic liberty of hardworking Americans, hamper economic growth, limit innovation, and depress wages,” FTC spokesperson Victoria Graham said in a statement to The Verge. ”We are seriously considering a potential appeal.” If the FTC does push ahead with an appeal, it would go to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to be heard. Appeals on district court decisions are often a lengthy process, with the FTC’s appeal against Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition still pending a result. In the meantime, the FTC will have to challenge noncompetes via case-by-case enforcement actions. The ruling upholds a lawsuit that Tax firm Ryan LLC filed in April — later backed by the US Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable — to challenge the noncompete agreements ban, arguing that it would make it difficult for companies to retain talent. When the FTC voted 3-2 in support of the ban, the agency said it would allow for more than 8,500 new businesses to be made each year. https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24225112/ftc-noncompete-agreement-ban-blocked-judge

Adyen and InvoiceASAP, an invoicing and payments firm, launched a small-business-focused instant payments partnership. The collaboration will provide users with instant access to deposited funds, according to a Wednesday (Aug. 21) press release. InvoiceASAP will use Adyen’s Adyen for Platforms solution to let users “sign up, sell and get paid through a single solution.” “InvoiceASAP is building the most advanced invoice-to-pay solution,” InvoiceASAP CEO Paul Hoeper said in the release. “Adyen gives us access to the most advanced payment products and tools, including [the FedNow® Service]. We are fully focused on providing the fastest velocity of bank deposits for our over 23,000 merchants. By combining Adyen’s instant payouts and new cash-out functionality, we can provide our users with unmatched velocity.” Adyen was among the first FinTech platforms certified by the Federal Reserve to use the FedNow last summer and is using that certification to help companies like InvoiceASAP move money faster and more efficiently, per the release. In other FedNow news, PYMNTS wrote Wednesday about a new report from the Federal Reserve showing that FedNow volumes have been “modest” although, “in the long run, instant payments will be a routine part of everyday commerce.” There’s a price tag, with the Fed report showing that the central bank invested $545 million to implement FedNow. https://www.pymnts.com/partnerships/2024/adyen-invoiceasap-team-instant-deposits/

A former NFL player and his business partner, who were co-owners of a construction business and trucking company, and their bookkeeper face fraud charges after prosecutors claim they engaged in an elaborate scheme to obtain $1.4 million through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). On Monday, a federal grand jury indicted Dana C. Howard, 52, of O’Fallon, Illinois, on nine counts, including wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud, failure to pay taxes, making a false statement and conspiracy. Howard, who was drafted in 1995 by the Dallas Cowboys and later released and signed by the St. Louis Rams that year. In 1996, he was signed to play for the Chicago Bears before being injured. He was an All-American linebacker for the University of Illinois. In the 21-page indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Howard’s business partner, Richard Scott Myers, 63, of Edwardsville, Illinois, was charged with eight counts, including one count of money laundering, and Glenn Sunnquist, 53, of Swansea, Illinois, was charged with three counts of wire fraud and conspiracy. What happened? According to the indictment, Howard and Myers owned a construction company, Zoie LLC, as well as a freight company, Zade Trucking, both located in East St. Louis, Illinois. Prosecutors allege that Howard and Myers applied for and obtained a $1.43 million loan in April 2020 from Saint Louis Bank through the PPP, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration to help businesses struggling during the COVID pandemic. The pair claimed that more than $1.3 million of the funds would be used to keep their construction company, Zoie, afloat. However, prosecutors allege that Howard and Myers used most of the funds meant to keep Zoie operating for their personal use and to pay down nearly $430,000 in debt for their other business, Zade Trucking. Myers used $250,000 to buy a house, according to the indictment. Court filings allege the business partners used cashier’s checks and wire transfers to move funds meant for the construction company through three banks in St. Louis, Edwardsville and Champaign, Illinois, and wrote checks for themselves for $500,000 apiece from the Zoie account, which they listed as “payroll funds” in the memo line. Howard and Myers also filed for personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Southern District of Illinois in 2020 but failed to disclose the PPP funds that were funneled to their personal accounts, according to the indictment. Full Story https://www.freightwaves.com/news/ex-nfl-player-business-partners-indicted-on-ppp-fraud-charges

The Supreme Court ruled Monday on the Presidential immunity case, one of the most significant in recent memory. "Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts." https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-trump-may-immunity-federal-election-inter-rcna149135

'For July 2024, job growth slowed to 114,000 jobs. The unemployment rate increased to 4.3% for July 2024 compared to 3.5% in July 2023'. Here are some stats from Lumos about the effect of the unemployment rate on small business loan performance.