Talking Alternative Finance With MultiFunding's Ami Kassar: 'It's The Wild, Wild West Out There'

Ami Kassar knows his way around small business loans: As chief executive of MultiFunding, based outside of Philadelphia, he advises business owners about financing. Though bank lending to small businesses has come back since the depths of the financial crisis, the rise of alternative lenders and online lending has changed the playing field. Small business owners – including those with less-than-stellar credit – have an array of financing options that didn’t exist a decade ago. But many of these loans and advances are complex, and in some cases the cost of financing is exorbitant. MultiFunding joined a group of lenders, marketplaces, brokers and small-business advocates this week to launch a “small business borrowers’ bill of rights” against abusive practices and non-transparent pricing. I sat down with Kassar recently in New York City for a wide-ranging discussion of the new lending environment over Dr. Brown’s cream sodas. What follows is an edited and condensed version of that conversation.