Lithic, Mastercard Make SMB Loans Instantly Spendable

Small businesses often face a gap between loan approval and access to funds, complicating purchases, payroll and working-capital management. Lithic and Mastercard are addressing that bottleneck by embedding commercial lending into digital wallets and card-issuing infrastructure, allowing approved credit to move directly into a payment instrument rather than first passing through a conventional bank disbursement process.

Under the newly announced partnership, SMB borrowers can receive a digital card and begin spending approved loan proceeds immediately. Lithic’s programmable processing technology also allows lenders to set transaction controls, monitor how funds are used and reduce operational friction. The companies did not disclose loan amounts, the expected scale of the program or a specific launch date in the information provided.