Fifth Third for Business Helps Small Businesses Get Paid Faster, Manage Cash Flow, and Access Capital

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 4, 2026--

Fifth Third (NASDAQ: FITB) today introduced Fifth Third for Business, a small business banking experience designed to help owners manage cash flow, get paid faster, and access capital with greater speed and confidence. The experience is rolling out to more than 240,000 small business customers.

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“Running a small business today requires speed, simplicity, and confidence in your financial tools,” said Ben Mendelsohn, senior vice president and director of Consumer and Small Business Products at Fifth Third. “With Fifth Third for Business, we’re giving owners a more efficient way to move money, lower costs, and secure capital quickly, while pairing modern digital capabilities with the support of local bankers who understand their businesses.”

The launch reflects Fifth Third’s broader strategy to scale modern banking capabilities across its consumer and small business franchise, combining the speed and simplicity of digital tools with the strength, stability, and expertise of an established bank.

Introducing Fifth Third for Business

Fifth Third for Business integrates banking, payments, and lending capabilities into one small business experience to help entrepreneurs spend less time managing financial tasks and more time serving their customers. Delivered digitally and supported by a growing network of local branch bankers, benefits include:

Fifth Third offers three business checking tiers: Business Checking, Premium Business Checking, and Elite Business Checking. Early Pay and Extra Time benefits are available with Fifth Third Premium and Elite Business Checking accounts.

Fifth Third acquired Provide in 2021, adding a digital lending platform with deep experience in healthcare practice finance. In 2024, Fifth Third expanded Provide's proprietary technology beyond healthcare to power SBA 7(a) loan origination. Now, with the launch of Fifth Third for Business, that same platform supports streamlined digital lending for small business customers across the Bank's footprint, with approvals for up to $100,000 in financing in as little as one hour.

“Small business owners need capital that moves at the speed of their business,” said Andrew Bennett, head of Small Business at Fifth Third. “By bringing Provide’s digital lending platform to more Fifth Third customers, we’re reducing paperwork, accelerating decisions, and giving owners more certainty when they need to invest in inventory, equipment, or growth.”

Built for Small Businesses—and Backed by a 168‑Year‑Old Bank

Fifth Third combines the speed and simplicity business owners expect from modern financial technology with the strength, stability, and local expertise of a national bank embedded in its communities. The Bank continues to expand its branch network in high‑growth markets, with branch teams and spaces designed to support deeper financial conversations with business owners.

Fifth Third also invests directly in small business growth through the Fifth Third Small Business Catalyst Fund. In 2025, the Bank awarded $5,300 grants to nearly 50 small businesses across the U.S., the first awards from a $7.85 million fund launched in partnership with Community Reinvestment Fund, USA—broadening financial access, fueling job creation, and supporting a more equitable small business ecosystem.

“Managing cash flow is a leading concern for small business owners — and we meet that need head-on with multiple solutions to get paid quickly. Whether you’re a farmer using Zelle to sell produce at a local farmer’s market, a cafe getting your card payments deposited with Early Pay, or a machine tool shop that needs to finance a large order, we’re designing for real-world moments,” Mendelsohn added. “That’s how owners save time and help build confidence to focus on customers and growth.”

What’s Next

Fifth Third will continue to modernize the small business experience with enhanced digital origination, more seamless online and mobile banking connections between personal and business profiles, and a modern authentication and login experience—laying the groundwork for deeper product integrations throughout 2028.

Visit 53.com/business or speak with a Fifth Third small business banker to get started.

About Fifth Third

Fifth Third is a bank that’s as long on innovation as it is on history. Since 1858, we’ve been helping individuals, families, businesses and communities grow through smart financial services that improve lives. Our list of firsts is extensive, and it’s one that continues to expand as we explore the intersection of tech-driven innovation, dedicated people and focused community impact. Fifth Third is one of the few U.S.-based banks to have been named among Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies ® for several years. With a commitment to taking care of our customers, employees, communities and shareholders, our goal is not only to be the nation’s highest performing regional bank, but to be the bank people most value and trust.

Fifth Third Bank, National Association is a federally chartered institution. Fifth Third Bancorp is the indirect parent company of Fifth Third Bank and its common stock is traded on the NASDAQ ® Global Select Market under the symbol "FITB." Investor information and press releases can be viewed at www.53.com. Deposit and credit products provided by Fifth Third Bank, National Association. Member FDIC.

Zelle® and the Zelle® related marks are wholly owned by Early Warning Services, LLC and are used herein under license.

Fifth Third Bank, National Association may refer customers to Worldpay for merchant services. Compensation for such referrals may be paid by Worldpay to Fifth Third if the referral results in new business for Worldpay. The amount of any referral fee paid for received services will not affect the fees paid or payable by you.

1 Early Pay: Early Pay is a fee-free feature available for Fifth Third Business Premium Checking and Fifth Third Business Elite Checking. Early Pay grants you access to your eligible ACH payments up to two days prior to the scheduled payment date. Federal tax refunds may be received from the Internal Revenue Service up to five days before the scheduled payment date. Early access to funds is dependent on submission of direct deposit by payer and standard fraud prevention restrictions.

2 Extra Time: Fifth Third Extra Time® is a fee-free feature available for Fifth Third Business Premium Checking and Fifth Third Business Elite Checking. Fifth Third Extra Time® gives you longer—anytime before midnight ET on the business day after your account is overdrawn—to make a deposit that brings your available balance to at least $0. You must deposit enough to cover all items that caused your overdraft plus any outstanding checks, automatic payments, or pending debit card purchases that may be presented that business day. Extra Time does not apply to items that are returned unpaid.

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Fifth Third for Business helps small businesses get paid faster, manage cash flow, and access capital.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For more than a decade, the United States dramatically reduced its national smog levels, but since 2015 smoke from increasingly larger wildfires is reversing that clean-up trend and making the air dirtier and deadlier, a new study finds.

Scientists say climate change deserves much, but not all, of the blame.

The national smog level dropped by 11% from 2003 to 2015 as strict federal regulations on power plants, cars and diesel engines kicked in. But since then, as wildfires have grown, the nation's average ground level ozone — which is smog — increased by 4%. That means if smoke increases at the current rate, smog will go back up to 2003 levels in 20 years, said study lead author Weizhi Deng, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Iowa.

Thursday's study in the journal Science also estimated an increase in deaths from ozone attacking lungs, using previously established epidemiology studies that compared death rates in clean and dirty air. They calculated an increase of 318 American deaths per year since 2013.

“For the last 20 years, by regulations, we keep decreasing the emissions" for human-caused smog-inducing chemicals, said study co-author Meng Zhou, a University of Iowa wildfire researcher. “However, because of wildfires, that is actually from natural hazards, all those kinds of effort were wiped out.”

The study was novel in the way it estimated the national smog level, compensating for how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a limited number of smog monitors. Those cover only 2% of the nation, mostly in urban areas. So Deng and his colleagues used those observations — along with satellite, pollution and weather data and models — then used artificial intelligence to create a nationwide data set of ozone levels showing smog count at a resolution slightly higher than half a mile (1 kilometer).

EPA figures show the national ozone level since 2015 has vacillated around the same mark, going up and down a few percentage points, but Deng said, “by considering everywhere in the U.S., we actually found an increase in ozone starting from 2015.”

The method using artificial intelligence is solid because it starts with “massive and reliable datasets,” then uses computer models to fill in the gaps in a sensible way to make an “exceptional” high-resolution picture, said University of Delaware environment professor Cristina Archer, who wasn’t part of the study.

Megafire Action's research director and senior policy advisor Teresa Feo said “experts have long called for expanding the air pollution monitoring network to improve research on wildfire smoke exposure and provide the data needed to better protect public health.”

For decades, the U.S. tracked six traditional air pollutants, including smog and soot, which are tiny particles. This new study looked only at ozone, while a 2023 study by many of the same team looked at small particle pollution. They found the downward trend in soot levels had similarly reversed. Wildfire smoke increased particle pollution deaths by about 670 per year, the 2023 study found.

Fires don't produce ozone itself, but they release precursor chemicals that become smog when they interact with sunlight, scientists said.

“Higher daily ozone concentrations can increase asthma attacks, hospital admissions, and mortality,” said University of Washington public health and climate scientist Kristie Ebi. It's not quite as deadly as tiny particles, she said, but it's “still a very important pollutant, which is why it's regulated.”

During the heavy wildfire smoke seasons of 2022, 2023 and 2024, much of the fires were in Canada, but the smoke came south. In the U.S., 43 million people were exposed to smog levels that exceeded the current EPA safety standard, the study found.

And that standard isn't stringent enough, said Dr. Lynn Goldman, former dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health and a former EPA assistant administrator. In 2023, the Biden administration delayed plans to tighten those standards and then the Trump administration changed regulations that consider deaths and health impacts in smog and soot rules.

The biggest increase in ozone levels were in the Northern Rockies, which were near many of the fires, and in the Midwest, where the smoke travelled next, Deng said.

The average amount of U.S. land that wildfires burn each year is now 9% higher than it was from 2003 to 2014, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. But the wildfires in Canada have been particularly bad since 2022, scientists said. They pointed to 2023 when the skies were orange and people in the East were wearing face masks because of the Canadian smoke.

The amount of land burned in 2023 in Canada was not only a record but two times higher than the old record, said atmospheric scientist Brendan Rogers of the Woodwell Climate Research Center. Smoke from that year's Canadian fires killed 82,100 people globally — 33,000 in the United States — because of the particle pollution, a study in 2025 calculated.

Climate change, from the burning of coal, oil and gas, increased the intensity of Canada's 2023 fire season by at least 50% and doubled the chances of the drier, hotter weather conditions that were needed for the fire, a 2023 study found.

“Human-caused climate change is an important contributor, because it increases hot, dry fire-weather conditions in many regions,” said Lixu Jin, an atmospheric scientist at Rutgers who wasn't part of the study. “But wildfire emissions also depend on fuels, land management, ignitions, suppression, and year-to-year meteorology.”

Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who served in the Obama administration, said it was discouraging to see smog improvements being eroded.

Wildfires cause death and destruction, but the greatest danger may come from smoke and extreme heat increasing the ozone that harms people’s health, she argued,

“So the big question is," she said, “when are we going to stop the nonsense from this administration to burn more and more ‘beautiful’ fossil fuels?”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

FILE - A man runs in front of the sun rising over the lower Manhattan skyline in Jersey City, N.J., June 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - A woman steps away as the Sandy Fire approaches a neighborhood May 18, 2026, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - An air tanker drops fire retardant on the Sandy Fire on May 18, 2026, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - A firefighter works as the Sandy Fire approaches May 19, 2026, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman, File)

FILE - Mayra Long looks from inside her home as the Sandy Fire approaches May 19, 2026, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman, File)

FILE - Firefighters are silhouetted amid an operation to control the Sandy Fire, May 19, 2026, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman, File)