In our outreach, bankers noted that it is critical for partnerships to be built upon a foundation of mutual trust and alignment of values. In some cases, due diligence efforts reveal that potential partners do not share the banks’ values or objectives.
One bank, for example, began discussions with a fintech company that could assist it with the bank’s Paycheck Protection Program loan originations by providing a customer-facing application portal. After learning that this partner intended to sell the small business customer information it would obtain, the bank opted out of the partnership.