CTO Insights Series | Part 2 of 3
By Donald Wichern, Co-Founder & Tech Sherpa (CTO), mysherpas
For years, lending teams have made decisions shaped less by structure and more by instinct. A gut feeling. A past loss. An unspoken rule. A bias passed down as “credit culture.”
It may keep the engine running in the short term, but it’s not scalable, not defensible, and it erodes borrower trust over time.
The latest Federal Reserve Report on Employer Firms underscores just how fragile the system has become:
- 57% of small businesses now cite reaching customers and growing sales as their top operational challenge, up from 53% a year ago.
- 75% report rising costs, and more than half struggle with uneven cash flow and operating expenses.
- 41% of financing applicants didn’t get the full amount they sought, with many denials tied to carrying too much debt. That’s nearly double the rate from just three years ago.
- Lender satisfaction is plummeting. This is especially true with online lenders, where net satisfaction fell from 15% to just 2%.
These aren’t just numbers. They’re signals of a system straining under the weight of subjectivity and fractured processes.
At mysherpas, we believe the path forward is Security by Design:
- Structure Over Instinct: every workflow, every compliance check, every data handshake must be rooted in structure. That creates defensibility when regulators ask why decisions were made.
- AI With Guardrails: AI should never be a black box. With the right boundaries, it behaves like a teammate — accelerating decisions while reinforcing trust.
- Proactive Compliance: when regulations shift, lenders shouldn’t scramble. Security by design means compliance adapts in real time, so teams can focus on lending, not firefighting.
This isn’t about slowing down with more controls. Done right, security clears the path forward making lending scalable, defensible, and, most importantly, trustworthy.
Your trusted guide,
Don Wichern
Co-Founder & Tech Sherpa (CTO), mysherpas