In the world of fintech, you would be forgiven for thinking that all the major developments and collaborations are happening within the four walls of the largest incumbent banks and their startup partners. But, there is a whole world of exciting opportunity and expansion happening within smaller community and challenger banks, as the recent FinovateSpring showed. With an entire stream dedicated to community banking and many more sessions and speakers looking at the potential of SMEs, it was hard to miss the importance of this sector. Here, we catch up with some of the leaders in the space to hear what is exciting them and what they think the future has in store.

Rick Winslow, Chief Experience Officer at Kabbage talks about responsible borrowing behaviors and the importance of being able to provide much smaller lines of credit to small businesses.

Almost half of Americans own or work for a small business, yet they often are not given the priority. We spoke to Karen Mills, Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School and former cabinet member under President Barack Obama as Head of small Business Administration, about how important small business lending is to the health and well-being of businesses and ultimately the economy, and how technology may transform this process.

Jill Castilla, President and CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond sits down with Steven Ramirez of Beyond the Arc to talk innovation in community banking, pushing the norms with legacy technology companies, and being organically invested to seek out new opportunities.

Tyler McIntyre, Founder and CTO of Bank Novo and Steven Ramirez, CEO at Beyond the Arc, talk challenger banks and why they’re needed in the current financial services and banking ecosystem.