Calibo and Bank313 launch AI-powered lending platform to accelerate small-business credit in Detroit

DETROIT — October 27, 2025. Calibo and Bank313 have launched a next-generation digital lending platform designed to deliver faster, fairer access to capital for small businesses—moving approvals to as fast as 24 hours for many loan types. The platform combines fully digital onboarding, AI-assisted underwriting, and governed workflows so community banks can serve entrepreneurs with speed and transparency.

Why it matters

Traditional small-business lending is slow, paper-heavy, and often favors large, established borrowers. Bank313, a Detroit-first, digital-first division of First State Bank, is tackling that gap by pairing local decisioning with modern digital delivery—“banking at the speed of Detroit.”

What launched

The Calibo Digital Lending Platform provides end-to-end loan origination—covering lead capture, application processing, credit evaluation, decisioning, and loan closure—in a single, secure system. Teams get centralized application management, paperless document handling, configurable workflows by product, and real-time dashboards for pipeline and performance analytics.

AI-assisted underwriting, with human oversight

An AI-powered underwriting assistant reads complex financial documents (tax returns, CPA statements), structures the data, calculates key ratios, and flags low-confidence fields for human review—supporting faster, more consistent decisions without removing expert judgment. Each field links back to its source for explainability and auditability. The assistant runs on Microsoft Azure using Azure OpenAI in a tenant-isolated environment, with encryption and strict data-handling controls.

Responsible by design: governance, security, and compliance

Calibo’s approach embeds audit trails, role-based controls, and transparency across the lending workflow. Fair-lending principles center on objective, explainable criteria with human oversight at every step. KYC/AML remain bank-executed, while the platform standardizes capture, documentation, and reviewer sign-offs to make compliance easier to manage.

Voices from the partners

“This digital lending platform is a game-changer for us,” said Robert Farr, President & CEO of First State Bank and Bank313.

“We’re reimagining the future of banking,” added Scott Sandschafer, CEO of Calibo.

From Detroit to the world

The Calibo architecture is built to scale across products and markets. Beyond Detroit, similar data-driven models and digital workflows have supported high-volume, short-term lending for micro and small retailers in India, demonstrating viability and risk control at scale (475k loans; INR 750 Cr; NPAs ~2% p.a.). It’s a blueprint for inclusive growth that can extend wherever small businesses need faster access to credit.

Learn more

• Explore the Bank313 × Calibo platform overview page
• Talk to our team about modernizing digital lending at your institution.

Media contact: Ana Garcia (Calibo)