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Amazon and Goldman to Roll Out Small Business Credit Lines
By: TheStreet | June 10, 2020

• The credit line partnership is a first for Amazon, which has previously kept its small business lending in-house, CNBC reports.

Shares of Amazon (AMZN) continued their relentless rise on Wednesday, fueled by news the tech giant is teaming up with Goldman Sachs on a small business lending program.

Amazon shares rose 1.63% to $2,643.26 a share as CNBC reported that billionaire Jeff Bezos' online retail empire and the Wall Street giant will soon be rolling out offers of credit lines of up to $1 million to small businesses.

The offers will be targeted at small businesses that do business on Amazon's online retail platform, and will feature Goldman's "Marcus" brand of credit lines, according to CNBC, citing people familiar with the plans.

Similar to credit cards, borrowers who take out the credit lines will be charged interest rates ranging from 6.99% to 20.99%. The credit lines, like credit cards, can be tapped and then repaid.

Amazon has been in the small business lending sector previously, but until now has never partnered with another firm to farm out underwriting decisions, such as which businesses to lend to or not. Until now, Amazon has kept those decisions in house, according to CNBC.

As part of the partnership, Amazon will share data with Goldman about the businesses who sell on its retail platform. Goldman will also potentially be able to tap into sales numbers of businesses who use Amazon's Seller Central site and how long they have been doing business on it, provided the business owners give their OK.

"We are super excited about embarking on this journey with Amazon," Omer Ismail, head of Goldman's consumer business, told CNBC.

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