I admit, I've got more than a casual interest in the future of small business banking. As an entrepreneur I can attest to the lack of solutions for smaller companies whose needs fall between the capabilities of their bank's retail platform and the suite of products available to its corporate customers.

But there are signs of hope on the horizon. Intuit is hiring product managers like crazy and has made some key acquisitions (Digital Insight) and as Dan Schatt (formerly of Celent and now at PayPal) observes the "Fiserv/Checkfree/Corillian/Billmatrix behemoth" may muster key functionality that banks can offer smaller businesses.

My fingers are crossed… but I realize it may still take awhile.