In many banks today, small business lending is an automated process that relies on computers to analyze data and determine a borrower’s creditworthiness. For me, the process was personal. It involved sitting eyeball to eyeball across the table from my customer. More often than not, the customer was someone I knew well, and had been lending to for years.
This paper describes the revision in some detail, including changes in sectoral classification and expansion of transaction categories, and explains the new types of information obtainable from the revised flow of funds accounts. Improvement of statistics often involves a trade-off between users’ convenience and reporting burden. Improvement of the flow of funds accounts is no exception.