There are a lot of advantages that a small privately owned bank might have over large giants. For example: * Banking based on reputation - sometimes you know t

There are a lot of advantages that a small privately owned bank might have over large giants. For example: * Banking based on reputation - sometimes you know that someone is trustworthy and good for the money, but the numbers on paper don't show it. Maybe their credit score was dinged for some reason that's easy to explain. Maybe you know their family personally. A small bank might be able to lend to people who are excluded by the big banks' algorithms. * Big banks are under more scrutiny. That doesn't mean they don't do things with dirty money, but they are being watched more closely (I'm not accusing this particular family of shady banking practices... just noting that there is indeed a large amount of dirty money out there that flows through banks, and some banks are more willing to look the other way). * As you said, collateralizing weird assets. Some banks might allow a thoroughbred horse as collateral. Most probably don't have the expertise to value these things and so they don't want to allow it as collateral.