Simply because the Covid-19 pandemic seemed prefer it was beneath management, SMEs in Singapore at the moment are grappling with an inflationary atmosphere, an impending GST hike, provide chain challenges, and rising rates of interest.
To assist them deal with these points, DBS is rolling out two options to handle unmet working capital wants of SMEs in Singapore – ‘DBS Fast Finance’ and a partnership with Xero, a worldwide accounting platform for small enterprise.
With ‘DBS Fast Finance’, DBS will likely be proactively reaching out to recognized prospects by way of its DBS IDEAL platform to increase working capital and cashflow assist. ‘DBS Fast Finance’ allows nearly immediate entry to financing of as much as SGD300,000. Prospects can have the pliability to decide on between an overdraft which could be drawn down when wanted or a working capital mortgage which will likely be serviced each month.
Via hyper-personalised synthetic intelligence and information analytics, the DBS Fast Finance utility course of has been diminished to only one minute to use, one second to approve and in some situations, even immediate disbursement, with no further paperwork.
Gene Wong, Singapore Head of SME Banking (Micro & Small Phase), DBS, mentioned, “Simply as enterprise homeowners have been seeking to put two years of pandemic-driven financial uncertainty behind them, SMEs at the moment are having their mettle examined with inflationary pressures, a GST hike, provide chain headwinds and geopolitical tensions. DBS goals to double down on our assist for micro and small enterprises by tapping on our digital capabilities and superior information analytics to pinpoint potential monetary wants with larger precision, and attain out proactively earlier than their wants develop into too overwhelming or pressing. Having labored hand in glove with our micro and small companies to tide by way of the unprecedented challenges of Covid-19, we’re assured that enterprise homeowners will stay resilient, and we are going to emerge stronger collectively.”
As well as, DBS’ partnership with Xero may even allow SME prospects in want of financing to use for working capital loans just by sharing their day-to-day accounting transactional information direct from Xero’s platform with DBS for credit score evaluation functions. With the goal of creating entry to working capital less complicated and simpler for SMEs in Singapore, this new function might additional profit prospects by providing personalised credit score phrases and mortgage quantums derived from a deeper understanding of SMEs’ transaction and enterprise movement patterns.
Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, DBS has engaged SMEs in Singapore to increase working capital and cashflow assist, with larger focus paid to the micro and small enterprise phase. Since 2020, DBS has permitted over 16,000 collateral-free loans totalling greater than SGD 7 billion to SMEs in Singapore, with over 90% of those loans going to micro and small enterprises. In response to the DBS SME Pulse Test Survey revealed earlier this 12 months[[1]], over 85% of SMEs indicated that guaranteeing constant cashflow and managing prices was a key enterprise precedence in 2022.
On the similar time, DBS is tapping on rising applied sciences to assist micro and small enterprises handle their credit score danger. DBS has been proactively participating SMEs recognized by its synthetic intelligence and machine studying fashions on the earliest indicators of hassle with advisory assist and financing options earlier than their monetary state of affairs turns into unsalvageable. With these capabilities, the financial institution was capable of efficiently determine over 95% of non-performing SME loans at the least three months earlier than the companies skilled credit score stress. Over 80% of recognized at-risk debtors have been averted from danger.
DBS has additionally rolled out a spread of enhancements over the previous 12 months to make the banking journey for enterprise homeowners extra intuitive, clever, and invisible. These embody:
Providing SMEs a fully-digitalised, end-to-end account opening and onboarding course of. In February 2021, DBS grew to become the primary financial institution to introduce SingPass Face Verification as an authentication technique for SME account opening. At present, SMEs can entry their new company account on-line in lower than 20 minutes from the purpose of utility, and greater than 10,000 new SME accounts have been opened with DBS in 2021.
Availing to SMEs a very digital mortgage utility, approval and acceptance course of. Since July 2021, eligible SMEs have been capable of settle for mortgage presents digitally by way of IDEAL, the financial institution’s one-stop on-line company banking platform. This netted SMEs as much as a month in time financial savings by eradicating the trouble of scheduling bodily meetups with their bankers or arranging for doc drop-offs, two of the commonest mortgage acceptance strategies within the business at present.
DBS presents SMEs a collection of options for his or her cross-border commerce financing wants. The financial institution presents SMEs a multi-currency account to facilitate cross-border transactions, serving to SMEs simplify the administration of 13 currencies most utilized by SMEs in Singapore, all from the comfort of 1 pockets. In testomony to the relevance of DBS’ digital financing options, greater than 9 in 10 of the financial institution’s provide chain finance transactions throughout Asia have been carried out by way of digital platforms final 12 months. These translated to DBS registering strong development in income from commerce ecosystems which doubled year-on-year in 2021. DBS has additionally been providing same-day digital provider onboarding to its company purchasers since 2019. Coupled with digitally enabled capabilities reminiscent of intuitive lending, money administration and commerce finance providers, in addition to international trade options, DBS is ready to present SMEs a extra customised and seamless expertise.