Banks Can Find Huge Opportunity in SMB Accounting & Payments

The Paycheck Protection Program resurfaced the accounting and payments difficulties that many small businesses have and a potentially huge opportunity for banks; as Ron Shevlin of Cornerstone Advisors points out this can be a $370bn opportunity for banks if they were to add these services to their product offerings; according to a study from Cornerstone Advisors and Autobooks SMBs spend $500bn on accounting/bookkeeping, invoicing, bill payment and payment acceptance services from third-party providers; 6 percent of SMBa already get accounting and payment services from banks and 30 percent said they would definitely consider a bank for these services; 40 percent of businesses with more than $5mn in revenues said they would definitely consider a bank; about 60 percent of SMBs said they were very or somewhat likely to look for a new bank in the next year, that number dropped to 21 percent if they used the bank for accounting and payments services; the pandemic has changed a lot already and has the potential to create a sea change in how small businesses bank in the future. Forbes.