Brandon Spear, president of MSTS, sent in the following perspective on the Goldman-Amazon partnership:
"Goldman Sachs' prospective partnership to expand Amazon's current small and medium-sized business loans indicates that major players in the payment and lending space are looking for new, innovative solutions in an underserved market. After all, a lot of the ease and accessibility seen in the B2C sector hasn't quite made it to B2B.
"What's significant about the partnership is that marketplaces like Amazon have the ability to aggregate transaction data across their platform, providing a unique perspective on the economic outlook of companies purchasing on the platform. A classic problem in underwriting is that you're always looking in the rearview mirror, gathering old data and looking at what a company has done historically. The Amazon-Goldman Sachs partnership disrupts these traditional underwriting processes due to marketplaces' immediate access to a company's revenue streams and overall health without viewing specific banking information.
"This partnership also changes how suppliers access capital. Typically, a business has two options when securing a loan. First, through a traditional bank, like their community bank. But this is an expensive option for an SMB if there are no secured assets. The second option is to leverage receivables, as the injection of cash isn't as costly. Amazon likely has the ability to look at the transaction activity on the platform, and Goldman is a banking incumbent that is well-versed in the regulations around lending, making it a great partnership and providing an innovative solution for SMBs.
"This is one of those first plays that will shed light on the future of banking. B2B marketplaces continue to gain traction, as seen with Amazon and Alibaba. In fact, MSTS recently partnered with marketplace builder Arcadier to offer Net 30 terms for sellers participating in a marketplace ecosystem. While the Amazon-Goldman Sachs partnership highlights the state of the industry, it likely will not be the last partnership of this scale coming to fruition."
Thank you to Brandon Spear for contributing insider views to Readers Speak. Do you also have insights to share? Send 300 words or fewer to greensheet@greensheet.com. And please send news for posting to press@greensheet.com. 
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