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Staples expands into small business loans

Kaja Whitehouse
USA TODAY
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Office supply chain Staples will announce on Wednesday plans to help its core customers get loans without the hassle of a bank.

Staples — which is in the process of buying its sole remaining competitor, Office Depot, for $6.3 billion — has teamed with up online loan brokerage Lendio to offer loans through on its web site, company executives told USA TODAY.

The new service, to launch on Wednesday, will give Staples customers access to Lendio through Staples web site, Frank Bifulco, executive vice president of global marketing for Staples said.

The new service can be found at Staples.com/businessloans, he said.

Lendio acts as an online broker that hooks people up with a variety of possible loans, including peer-to-peer loans, lines of credit, cash advances and even traditional bank loans.

A spokeswoman for Stables decided to say what lenders Lenio has partnered with, but the company has been tied to peer-to-peer lender OnDeck Capital in the past.

For Staples, it's an easy way to help customers, many of whom have been facing difficulties getting bank loans since the financial crisis resulted in banks tightening the purse stings, said Bifulco.

"We bring the reach and legitimacy and credibility of Staples and Lendio gives us the tech prowess," to help customers find loans, Bifulco said.

Bifulco said Staples looked at 30 financial services firms before deciding on Lendio. The Farmingham, Mass., company will not charge fees for the service, he said.

"This was about us being able to better service our customers and hopefully they will use some of that money to continue to buy office supplies from Stapes," Bifulco said.

Non-traditional lending has become a big business since the financial crisis.

In December, LendingClub, a kind of Kickstarter for loans, raised about $1 billion in an initial public offering. And last year, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey launched a cash-advance program for merchants called Square Capital as part of his effort to grow his startup Square, which processes payments for businesses.

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