Digital banks that cater to entrepreneurs and freelancers are having a huge impact during the pandemic; more than 16 million Americans fall into this category and more are likely to join these ranks with the current uncertainty of the jobs market; firms like Oxygen, Joust, NorthOne, Azlo, Bank Novo and Lili have also seen an upward trend in the interest for their products and services; “A lot of jobs will not be coming back next year,” Ryan Conway, Head of Business Development at Oxygen, said to American Banker in May. “As people are looking for their next employment opportunities, we think a lot of those people are going to try freelancing, and they’re going to need a bank that understands their unique challenges,” Conway said; these banks offer low or no fees, a digital only experience, expense categorization, cash flow analysis, taxes, invoicing, payments and other tasks that entrepreneurs normally do manually with spreadsheets; most people end up using a list of tools to accomplish all the various tasks they need to get done, not to mention running their business; the pandemic is bound to make permanent shifts in various markets, banking for SMBs and freelancers is one market ready for change. American Banker.
