Mr. Sloane: The company was founded as a private entity in January 1998 and it went public through a reverse merger in September 2000. The company's initial focus was to participate in state-subsidized funding programs known as CAPCOs (certified capital companies). Newtek participated from 1998 to 2005 in operating and creating 16 certified capital companies, which raised over $220 million of funding, and we deployed those monies into various different businesses. Approximately three and a half years ago, the company changed its focus from primarily being focused on CAPCOs to using the funds from CAPCOs to own and operate a business platform that provides business services and financial services to the small to medium sized business market.
TWST: What are some of the services that you provide?
Mr. Sloane: The services that we provide to the SMB market are things such as
small business lending (we are a direct SBA lender); electronic payment
processing, giving small businesses the ability to take Visa, MasterCard,
Discover, check guarantee, and American Express; data storage; a full fleet of
small business insurance services; digital bookkeeping; business plan; Web
hosting; and Web design.
Tickers included in this excerpt: NEWT
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