This paper investigates whether banks' information technology (IT) can substitute for local branch presence in the provision of small business credit. Our identification strategy relies on loan-level data and the unique institutional features of the Italian public guarantee scheme during Covid-19. Despite the availability of online applications and low screening incentives, small business lending remains local, even for first-time borrowers. However, IT partly mitigates the impact of local branch presence: banks with better IT provide more, cheaper and faster guaranteed loans and lend more in areas where they have no bank branches, especially to first-time borrowers.