Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 12

82 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 12 they said that they also wanted to offer their customers a savings account. So we worked with them to do just that.” However, in spite of all its innovative output as a B2B player, much of Cross River’s work is likely to go unnoticed by the everyday consumer. For instance, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the federal government was looking for financial services partners to help make paycheck protection loans, Cross River leveraged its knowledge of small business lending to ensure the loans were available to anybody in the country on the first day of the Paycheck Protection Program. “On day one of the program, Cross River was open for business to any borrower in the country,” says Goldfeder. “You could argue that most people would still not have heard of us but, once again, we partnered with technology companies to help spread the word and provide loans to all of their customers.” Across both rounds of the Paycheck Protection Program, Cross River made over 480,000 loans, collectively worth more than $13 billion. “The best part was the fact that our average loan size was $27,000, which means that we were serving the smallest businesses – those most in need,” Goldfeder explains. “And we were doing it by merging the expertise of a bank with the innovative offerings of a technology company.” The ability to straddle the technology and financial spheres owes a lot to the quality of Cross River’s employees. “Our workforce is expanding rapidly,” Goldfeder adds. “We’ve been growing at the pace of a technology company. To put things in perspective, Bank of America utilized 10,000 employees to make just 8,000 more loans than us. That speaks to our commitment to innovation.” In return for the hard work of employees, Cross River champions a corporate culture that recognizes and rewards their endeavors. Goldfeder proudly reports, “We’ve won best