Today it is possible, and it’s already happening.
Traditionally – and in many cases still – it is a manual and costly process to secure the regulatory requirements regarding KYC, PEP checks, terror lists, and making sure all documents are handled correctly. In addition, when assessing a company’s financial status, the information available is out of date and usually based on last year’s annual report. Therefore, to issue an SME loan, most banks ask for securities such as real estate, a guarantor, or any other type of collateral. Another approach has been to use factoring by selling invoices.
In Finland, 99,3%1 of all companies are so-called SME companies with fewer than 250 employees. Today, the total lending to these companies in Finland only amounts to about €1,5 billion1. This can be compared with unsecured consumer credit loans amounting to almost 23.6 billion at the end of June 20213.
New players with fresh ideas are entering the market.
Few banks, if any, are only looking at the performance of the business in order to assess the company. This is changing.
As better alternatives to improve the evaluation process are available, neobanks and fintechs are integrating accounting data and PSD2 data directly into the credit process through APIs and can evaluate the creditworthiness of the company in real-time. With an automated KYC process and a more accurate scoring model, you reduce uncertainties and can offer more attractive loans. On top of this, by monitoring the company’s financial health in real-time you can catch any warning signs early and work with the company to secure the re-payment of the loan.
This gives the customer access to capital based on the performance of the business rather than providing collateral. The digital loan process is both quick and smooth and provides the customer with a fast and fair assessment based on data-driven insight and, if approved, quick access to funding.
Today, the customers also expect you to swiftly solve their specific needs, whether it is a line of credit need, a repayment schedule tailored to their business, or an investment loan with a complex pricing set-up. Key here is a solution that allows you to easily create and launch new loan products, all with a minimum of manual involvement.
Vilja SME Loan solution covers the entire end-to-end process in one system, from onboarding and scoring to servicing and e-archive, and supports both secured and unsecured SME loans. The solution allows high-volume, short turn-around time scenarios with minimized risk by continuously monitoring customer status while maintaining high KYC standards.
Stay ahead of the game and transform your SME lending business with a digital lending platform that enables an automated customer onboarding, scoring, and servicing process. The market potential for simple and flexible business loans is huge.
Reading & podcast tips
- Listen to FintechPodden where our CEO Fredrik Ulvenholm is discussing SME Financing
- Read more about our company and our offerings
- Read how we help our Finnish customer OPR link to press release
Sources
1 According to Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2020 : An OECD Scoreboard – Source – https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/de901e55-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/de901e55-en
2 2019 SBA Fact Sheet (European Commission)
3 Bank of Finland
Vilja Solutions is our Nordic Fintech Summit 2022 partner. Last partnership packages are available, for more information click here.
