Quarterly Latinx Small Business Survey Offers Unique Insights Into Leading Indicator of U.S. Economy and a Baseline for Coming Impact of COVID-19
Camino Financial, a data-driven fintech platform pioneering affordable small business loans to help U.S. Latinx businesses thrive, has issued the Camino Financial U.S. Latinx Small Business Survey – Q4 2019, the first in a regular series of reports summarizing the credit and financial status of the U.S. Latinx Small Business segment, a critical leading indicator of economic performance.
Read More: H2O.ai Empowers MarketAxess to Innovate and Inform Trading Strategies
Camino Financial is sharing its proprietary data on this segment to provide a baseline and track the economic development of this key demographic. This data serves to identify and anticipate the credit needs of U.S. Latinx small businesses in general, and now in the face of economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The initial report provides insights into macroeconomic trends derived from Camino Financial’s 2019 business loan data based on tens of thousands of applications, the largest published data set of its kind focused on the U.S. Latinx business segment.
“Camino Financial stands together with our community of small business owners during this time of great uncertainty. Data is power,” said Sean Salas, co-founder & CEO of Camino Financial. “Camino Financial has leveraged its unique combination of deep data and advanced AI to produce insights into this essential market. We will continue to build the largest pool of application and performance data on underbanked U.S. Latinx businesses. We plan to use this data to innovate and meet the credit needs of the market.”
Read More: Finhabits Launches Microlearning Journeys to Help Diverse Communities Build Healthy Financial Habits
Key insights from the Survey include:
- Credit – In Q4 2019, 35% of Latinx businesses applied for a loan with no reported Credit Score. The average Credit Score for Latinx applicants is 634.
- Velocity – Latinx entrepreneurs are rapidly launching new ventures: 56% of applicants had fewer than 2 years in operations in Q4 2019, compared to 48% in Q1 2019.
- Size – The average Latinx small business generated $213K in annual revenue with over 80% of Latinx businesses operating in Low to Moderate Income areas.
“Camino Financial has developed a proprietary alternative credit scoring system that enables cash-based, thin-file, or no credit borrowers to secure loans at reasonable terms,” said Kenny Salas, co-founder, and COO of Camino Financial. “Data from this survey shows 35% of U.S. Latinx businesses do not have a credit score. It’s important that key stakeholders understand the profile of Latinx businesses and their trends over time, especially in light of a potential financial crisis.”
Read More: WorldRemit Partners with Wizall Money to Launch its First Mobile Money Transfer Service to Senegal
