By Mark Calvey – Senior Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
May 16, 2022 Updated May 16, 2022, 2:59pm PDT
Oakland-based TMC Community Capital said it named Daniel Fernandez as its first full-time CEO, effective June 6.
Fernandez, who was born in East San Jose, succeeds the microlender founder and part-time CEO Barbara Morrison, who remains president and CEO of TMC Financing, which works with small business owners to get financing under the Small Business Administration’s 504 loan program.
“Our steady growth warranted a full-time CEO to take it to the next level,” Morrison told me. “We are so excited to add the new CEO, who is well known in the California micro-lending world.”
Fernandez, who is based in Los Angeles, plans to split his time between Northern and Southern California. When he was based in the Bay Area, Fernandez was a small business banker at Chase Bank, creating a partnership with nonprofit microlender Opportunity Fund to refer loan applicants that didn’t qualify for traditional small business loans. He also created the “second look” program for his team at Chase in an effort to qualify more small business borrowers.
In Southern California, his lending career includes a role as vice president of community development at the University of Southern California Credit Union, where his efforts included lending products for residents of South Central L.A. and similar neighborhoods. He later took a position at fintech banking startup Mobility Capital Finance, where he was in charge of national partnerships.
At TMCCC, Fernandez envisions expanding the nonprofit microlender’s reach in California.
Morrison founded online microlender TMCCC when she became concerned that small business owners were paying too much for loans from a broad range of fintechs. TMCCC, a community development financial institution, focuses on small businesses owned by women, minority or low-income entrepreneurs.
Earlier this year, TMCCC began piloting what it calls Microloan Lite, a small business loan program that lets entrepreneurs borrow between $5,000 to $10,000 with less loan documentation in favor of giving greater weight to character and cash flow.
“We are finding other ways to say yes,” said TMCCC loan officer Vasana Ly.