Open Banking Lending Platform for micro-loan financing of SMEs

面向中小企业小额贷款融资的开放银行借贷平台

• 批准号: 66518
• 金额: $ 9.54万
• 依托单位: ASK INCLUSIVE FINANCE LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Feasibility Studies
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=66518
• 关键词: Open; Banking; Lending; Platform; micro

The **project outcome** will develop an **innovative automated Credit Grading Tool**, using data derived from recently implement Open Banking protocols, enabling **micro-SME cash flow forecasting based loan affordably analysis**, helping CDFI lenders quickly assess loan viability for loans in the sub-£100k range and aid SME business owners understand/ assess the risks/opportunities associated with taking out loans.As a **CBILS authorised lender (with own Community Development Finance Institution, CDFI, to make loans)**, and proprietary micro-financing platform for CDFIs, developed since February 2016, we are uniquely placed to understand the urgent need for technology to expedite micro-finance loans to SMEs.**Current solutions offered by larger lenders** are by necessity driven by automated algorithms poorly suited to evaluate critical small business decision making e.g. a café owner considering a second espresso coffee machine purchase. Typically, automated decisions are driven by data from credit bureaus and Companies House which is out-of-date and for a rapidly evolving micro-business bears little relationship to their current status.**Current solutions offered by CDFIs** are often based on manual reviews of loan affordability, not suited to the rapid decision making needed to approve large volumes of loans to SMEs.Prior estimates of the SME funding gap were £2.2bn+ pa. Post Covid-19 this will be substantially higher.Despite manual processes supporting SME applicants, business owners lacking the experience/skills in finance are naturally cautious about accepting a loan they may not be able to afford and lack the tools to fully understand the loan affordability risks.The emergence of Open Banking protocols has opened up new possibilities in terms of automation. However, most existing development has focussed on consumer focussed applications. In the aftermath of Covid-19, SME solutions will be a necessity to enable the survival of many thousands of micro-SME's in need of urgent loan financing.The **project outcome** will be to develop an **innovative automated Credit Grading Tool**, using data derived from Open Banking protocols, enabling **micro SME cash flow forecasting based loan affordably analysis**, helping CDFI lenders quickly assess loan viability for micro-loans and aid business owners understand/assess the risks/opportunities associated with borrowing.The game-changing **business outcome** will be that SME business owners, rejected by algorithm driven mainstream lenders, will now have **opportunities to access loan financing provided by CDFIs far quicker** and be able to fully understand the business logic, risks and opportunities presented by such a loan, based on real-time data available through Open Banking.With the extension for impact funding, further enhancements to our automated Credit Grading Tool tool will be made. These enhancements will:• Enable a deeper analysis of open banking data, by introducing seasonal factors for improved cash flow forecasting; • Allow businesses with cash transactions to provide more visibility to underwriters,• Reconcile accounting information to open banking data enabling better understanding, and improved underwriting• Provide additional forecasting customisation to businesses to better reflect the future prospects, which is particularly important in the light of increased economic volatility (i.e. ability to better convey the impact of Covid-19),• Develop the groundwork by ensuring relevant variables for algorithm iteration are analysed within the design and back-end for use when dynamic iteration is delivered Q2 2021 onwards.• These enhancements will enable businesses to better use the cash flow tool in these uncertain times, where simple forecasting would struggle to provide meaningful information in an automated manner. Our tool remains a ‘one-of-a-kind’ for small businesses.

**项目成果**将开发一个**创新的自动化信用评级工具**，使用最近实施的开放银行协议的数据，实现基于贷款可负担性分析的**微型中小企业现金流预测**，帮助CDFI贷款人快速评估10万英镑以下贷款的可行性，并帮助中小企业企业主了解/评估与贷款相关的风险/机会。作为CBILS授权的贷款人（拥有自己的社区发展金融机构CDFI提供贷款）**，以及自2016年2月以来开发的CDFI专有小额融资平台**，我们独特地了解对技术的迫切需求，以加快向中小企业提供小额贷款。**目前由大型贷款机构提供的解决方案**是由自动化算法驱动的，不适合评估关键的小企业决策，例如，咖啡馆老板考虑购买第二台浓缩咖啡机。通常情况下，自动化决策是由来自信用机构和公司注册处的数据驱动的，这些数据已经过时，对于快速发展的微型企业来说，这些数据与它们当前的状态几乎没有关系。** cdfi目前提供的解决方案**通常基于对贷款负担能力的人工审查，不适合批准向中小企业提供大量贷款所需的快速决策。此前对中小企业融资缺口的估计为每年22亿英镑以上。新冠肺炎疫情后，这一数字将大幅上升。尽管手工流程支持中小企业申请人，但缺乏金融经验/技能的企业主自然会对接受他们可能无法负担的贷款持谨慎态度，并且缺乏充分了解贷款负担能力风险的工具。开放式银行协议的出现在自动化方面开辟了新的可能性。然而，大多数现有的开发都集中在以消费者为中心的应用程序上。在2019冠状病毒病之后，中小企业解决方案将是确保成千上万需要紧急贷款融资的微型中小企业生存的必要条件。**项目成果**将开发一种**创新的自动化信用评级工具**，使用来自开放银行协议的数据**，实现基于贷款可承受性分析的**微型中小企业现金流预测**，帮助CDFI贷款人快速评估小额贷款的贷款可行性，并帮助企业主了解/评估与借款相关的风险/机会。改变游戏规则的业务结果将是，被算法驱动的主流贷款机构拒绝的中小企业企业主，现在将有机会以更快的速度获得cdfi提供的贷款融资，并能够根据Open Banking提供的实时数据，充分了解此类贷款所带来的业务逻辑、风险和机会。随着影响资金的延长，我们将进一步加强自动信用评级工具工具。这些增强功能将：•通过引入季节性因素来改进现金流预测，使开放银行数据能够进行更深入的分析；•允许有现金交易的企业向承销商提供更多的可见性；•将会计信息与开放的银行数据相协调，从而更好地理解和改进承销；•为企业提供额外的预测定制，以更好地反映未来前景；•通过确保在设计和后端分析算法迭代的相关变量，以便在2021年第二季度之后交付动态迭代时使用，从而奠定基础。•这些增强功能将使企业能够在这些不确定的时期更好地使用现金流工具，在这些时期，简单的预测很难以自动化的方式提供有意义的信息。我们的工具对于小型企业来说仍然是“独一无二”的。