Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and as their needs evolve, financial institutions must evolve with them. Entrepreneurs today expect more than products, they expect experiences that help them grow and thrive. For micro and small businesses, the top priorities are simplicity, speed, and self-service. They want to open accounts, send payments, and manage cash flow without friction.

In this keynote, TD Bank’s Chris Ward, head of U.S small business, will share how banks and credit unions can reimagine their approach to small business banking by focusing on the “Four S’s”:

• Speed: Delivering timely access to capital and quick decisioning that matches the pace of small business.
• Simplicity: Removing friction from onboarding, lending, and everyday banking through intuitive processes and digital tools.
• Safety: Protecting small businesses from fraud and risk while maintaining trust and resilience.
• Service: Providing relationship-driven support that meets business owners where they are, whether in-person, online, or hybrid.

This highly interactive session will engage attendees in reflecting on their own institutions’ strengths and opportunities across the Four S’s, sparking ideas for how the industry can better serve the small business community. Live Q&A will be offered through the Small Business Banking conference app!

Empowering Small and Mid-Sized Businesses: A Bank’s Role in Local Economies

Financial institutions play a critical role in supporting small and midsized businesses (SMBs) and local economies. In an up-close and thoughtful fireside chat, the session will uncover strategies and insights aimed at solidifying the role of banks as indispensable partners in the SMB ecosystem. In today’s economic landscape, discover how embracing digital transformation, leveraging data-driven intelligence, and fostering relationships can unlock new growth opportunities for banks as well as the entrepreneurs, families, and communities they serve. Insights include:

• Explore how an evolving banking model approach, centering SMBs not just as entities but as vital components of local economies and the livelihoods of individuals, is critical to maintaining competitive relevance.
• Examine operational and growth challenges many SMBs face, and how personalized, efficient, and scalable financial solutions address these issues to empower the people behind the businesses and strengthen the communities they serve.
• Understand how fostering deeper, more collaborative relationships with SMBs can create sustainable revenue streams and long-term loyalty for financial institutions, while directly contributing to the success of small businesses, individuals and overall community vitality.

Introduction by Bailey Reutzel, Strategy and Content, American Banker Live Media

Chatbots are a powerful tool for assisting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and banks with customer interactions on their platforms. They offer significant cost-effectiveness by reducing overhead, and provide scalability by handling multiple conversations simultaneously.

Additionally, chatbots can gather and analyze customer data to help organizations improve their services and tailor their offerings. There are important limitations to what chatbots can do. They have a limited understanding of nuanced or complex queries and often lack the emotional intelligence necessary to build trust and connect with customers who are seeking more personalized support. Our panelists will discuss how to strike the right balance between automation and human interaction to deliver a seamless and satisfying customer experience for the small businesses they serve.

Small businesses often struggle to access capital. Traditional business loan approval processes are slow, subjective and oftentimes rely on outdated models or incomplete data. Using AI to improve loan decision-making can be a game changer for both lenders and SBBs. Our panelists will discuss how AI is transforming lending through automated data collection, enhanced risk assessment, and faster loan approvals. The panel will also discuss the potential risks to using AI in lending decisions including algorithmic bias, data privacy concerns and a lack of transparency about lending decisions.

Small businesses are demanding more from their financial partners—speed, insights, and seamless digital experiences. But too often, those needs are being met by fintechs and software platforms that package payments and business services together in ways traditional banks don’t.

In this session, we’ll explore how financial institutions can reclaim relevance by partnering with fintech infrastructure to power integrated, intelligent, and scalable small business solutions. We’ll show how modern platforms are enabling banks to deliver embedded commerce, real-time settlement, and unified banking and payment experiences—without overhauling their existing tech stacks.

Small businesses operate on significantly tighter margins than large enterprises. In today’s economic environment, they are less able to absorb additional costs and are more likely to pass them on to consumers. This creates an urgent need for banks to help small business clients strategize ways to offset rising expenses, navigate supply chain disruptions, and manage a tightening credit landscape.

Our panelists will discuss how banks can play a critical role by offering innovative financing options, effective cash management and expense tracking tools, and seamless ecommerce and payment solutions. Together, we’ll explore actionable strategies financial institutions can implement to help small businesses maintain stability and growth in a challenging economy.

Al isn’t coming to lending-it’s already here, and it’s rewriting the rules. In this high-impact session, we will pull back the curtain on how banks can embrace Al to sharpen decision-making, drive deeper insights, and streamline operations-without losing the human touch that sets them apart.

This working group, in a roundtable format with moderators, will feature peer-to-peer bank executive exchanges on best practices for facilitating stronger small business banking strategies across five key topics for serving this market:

• Defining the New Small Business Customer – The discussion is on understanding how small businesses are changing, and what they need most from local banks, including who the new SMB segments are (microbusinesses, creators, digital-first entrepreneurs); how their demand for credit, payments, and financial guidance has evolved; and what banks offer that fintechs can’t.
• Competing in the Digital Era – The discussion will focus on the importance of adopting the right technology stack for scale and customer experience, including how banks can partner with fintechs or vendors for cost-effective innovation; the imperative of streamlining digital onboarding and loan processing, and the benefits of using AI and data analytics for smarter underwriting and relationship management.
• Payments, Cash Flow & Embedded Finance – The discussion will center on simplifying money movement for small businesses; including ways to leverage FedNow and instant payments for SMB liquidity; the integration of payments, payroll, and accounting into one experience; and exploring embedded finance partnerships with local SaaS and e-commerce players.
• Relationship Banking 2.0: Blending High Tech with High Touch – The discussion will focus on how to reinvent personal connection in a digital-first world; how to make relationship managers more productive with digital tools; designing “advice-based” banking models for business owners; and building loyalty through community engagement, local events, and educational programs.
• Managing Risk & Regulation in a New Environment – The conversation will focus on how to remain compliant while innovating on behalf of SMBs, including navigating open banking, data sharing, and digital identity; balancing speed with sound underwriting in an AI era; and managing cyber risk and fraud in small business portfolios.

This working group, in a roundtable format with moderators, will feature peer-to-peer credit union executive exchanges on best practices for facilitating stronger small business banking strategies across five key topics for serving this market within a member-first model:

• Digital Member Experience & Fintech Partnerships – The discussion will kick off with how credit unions can modernize small business banking through smarter technology and ecosystem collaboration, including how to compete with fintechs offering seamless digital experiences, choosing partner vs. build—deciding where to collaborate for digital lending, payments, and analytics; leveraging embedded finance to integrate business tools and financial products within business workflow.
• Smarter Lending: AI, Data & Alternative Credit Models – The discussion will center on modern underwriting and advisory powered by data and automation, including AI use cases in underwriting and portfolio monitoring; leveraging non-traditional data for small business credit decisions; balancing automation with relationship banking; and avoiding bias and maintaining compliance in AI-driven lending.
• The Regulatory & Risk Environment for 2026 – The focus of this discussion will be on understanding supervisory priorities, cybersecurity mandates, and opportunities within SBA programs; SBA program barriers and pending reforms for CUs; managing vendor and fintech partner risk; and compliance automation to move beyond manual processes.
• Real-Time Payments, Cash Flow Tools & Small Business Enablement – The discussion will center on building the next generation of treasury, payments, and cash-flow management solutions; helping small businesses manage cash flow and working capital; connecting accounting, invoicing, and CU accounts; and the rise of “financial operating systems” for SMBs.
• The Evolving Member Relationship – This conversation will focus on strengthening purpose-driven banking and expanding reach to underserved small businesses, including how to serve minority-, women-, and rural-owned small businesses; financial education, advisory, and community engagement; and creating a member-centric culture focused on training staff as trusted business advisors.

Credit unions often get overlooked as local “bit players” in the small business banking arena, but don’t be fooled: Credit unions are quickly eyeing a high-touch, member-focused approach to serve their chartered communities. The keynote will cover how credit unions can build a small business unit with advanced segmentation, sophisticated cash management suite of products, segmented, geography-based portfolio management for high-value existing members, and a holistic approach to deepening the entire relationship by winning the main operating balances. The session will also explore investing in advanced technology for account opening, tiered credit risk-based pricing strategies based on individual members, and how to use vendors and third parties to round out member solution offerings to attract small business banking customers.

How Community Banks Can Win in the Small Business Banking Space

Competition for small businesses’ deposits, loans, fee income, and community connections has never been tougher. Fintechs, money-center banks, and digital platforms are all targeting this lucrative segment with speed, convenience, and sophisticated data tools. How can smaller institutions compete effectively?

This conversation will focus on winning and retaining small business relationships at the community level including: How small business owner expectations of community banks and credit unions are changing; the profitable opportunity for community banks and credit unions;  how to define and integrate high-touch relationship banking with modern digital capabilities; where smaller institutions can differentiate most effectively; and how to prepare and deploy staff to support growth in this critical segment.

Building an AI-native product for SMB underwriting taught us a simple truth: trust comes from collaboration between analysts and AI systems. This talk discusses practical steps to getting reliable gains. The secret: AI starts → analysts correct → AI learns—and repeats. This keeps analysts in control, writes back to your system of record, and compounds trust as correction rates fall. The result is more throughput, stronger auditability, and better decisions. 

In a perfect world, small and mid-size businesses want a single platform to manage online and offline sales and payments seamlessly. Given their intense focus on the benefits of embedded finance, they also want payment systems tied directly to invoicing, accounting, and inventory. And, given tight cash flow, SMBs are keen for real-time settlement solutions that offer instant payouts. The panelists debate how small businesses are re-prioritizing digital payment options—credit and debt, mobile wallets, ACH and bank transfers, buy now, pay later, peer-to-peer payment apps, QR code-based payments, and stablecoins—to arrive at choices to meet their growing desire for low cost, easy to integrate, flexible payments across channels (online, mobile, in-store) that also deliver a frictionless customer experience.

Customers today have high expectations for companies to provide an end-to-end experience. Digital tools can help small businesses understand their customers on a much deeper level. Technology can provide enhanced personalization and customer engagement, offer a seamless omnichannel experience, and provide real-time assistance. Our panelists will discuss strategies for digital tools, including GenAI and fintech products, to enhance the customer experience.

NewtekOne, established in 1998, recently acquired a manual, single branch New York City-based bank, and by utilizing technology, people, and process, has transformed what is now known as Newtek Bank, N.A. into what it believes is the first true technology-oriented bank with no branches, traditional bankers, brokers, or BDOs. Newtek Bank has opened 15,000 depository accounts remotely and is the largest SBA government guaranteed lender in the United States in the most recent full fiscal year. Come hear how they did it, and how you can do it, too.

Content marketing through the use of blogs, videos, social media, and email newsletters can feel a little dated. Not so fast: Content marketing is still a viable strategy and is crucial for building brand awareness, generating leads and driving sales. Small businesses need to be aware of the trends that are impacting the creation of an effective content campaign. Panelists will discuss how Gen AI can be a co-creator of content, the move away from SEO to Generative Engine Optimization, and how customer data platforms can create personalized content at scale.

Access to credit lines is critical to small businesses. With several recent changes to SBA lending standards, many businesses may be wondering what’s changed and how it impacts their financials. Our panel will discuss the breadth of the changes to SBA’s standard operating procedure, its impact on banks and the economy, how banks can respond and why SMBs may seek alternative funding options.

Small and medium-sized businesses are always after new revenue. But they want to focus on their core business and not have to spend time and energy worrying about payment processing. Offering SMBs low fees, fast settlement, and a global network, while allowing them the generate revenue off those transactions, embedded payments players are coming to the rescue! Or are they? While embedded finance has certainly taken the industry by storm and allows consumers a plethora of payment options, not everyone is so sure the money flows back to the small business. Join this panel as they debate whether embedded finance is a cash cow or a money pit.

Amid shifting tariffs and global uncertainty, small businesses are taking on more risk than ever as it relates to cross-border payments. Not only are the costs of doing business across the globe in flux, but there’s growing fraud vectors to worry about and new competition in the market with the interest and adoption of stablecoins and other tech. Hear from an expert panel on the urgent need for banks to better support their SMB customers.