In the last two years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of Alternative Finance companies (AF) that seek to lend to the 90% of small businesses that banks either cannot or will not lend to. Yet, while lending to this vast segment of would-be borrowers would seem like “shooting fish in a barrel”, customer acquisition remains a major challenge for AFs. So, many of them have turned their attention to the banks as a potential origination channel.The AFs that have managed to work with banks have partnered with them in several ways, including: - Obtaining referrals from banks for loans not acceptable to bank criteria (“turn-downs”). In turn, the bank usually receives a referral fee and, more importantly, can capture or retain the customer’s business- Offering their origination, servicing, and risk management platforms as a service to the banks, allowing them to streamline the lending process, lowering their costs and improving customer experience- Purchasing individual whole loans or loan portfolios- Providing debt financing to AFs, secured by the AF’s portfolio of receivables