Open Banking Lending Platform for micro-loan financing of SMEs

** 项目成果 ** 将开发一个 ** 创新的自动信用评级工具 **，使用最近实施的开放银行协议中的数据，使 ** 微型中小企业现金流预测为基础的贷款负担能力分析 ** 成为可能，帮助CDFI贷款人快速评估10万英镑以下贷款的贷款可行性，并帮助中小企业所有者了解/评估与获得贷款相关的风险/机会。CBILS授权贷款人（拥有自己的社区发展金融机构CDFI，以提供贷款）**，以及自2016年2月以来开发的CDFI专有小额融资平台，我们处于独特的地位，能够理解对技术的迫切需求，以加快向中小企业提供小额融资贷款。大型贷款机构 ** 目前提供的解决方案是由自动算法驱动的，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局和公司的数据驱动的，这些数据已经过时，对于快速发展的微型企业来说，与其当前状态几乎没有关系。CDFI ** 目前提供的解决方案通常基于对贷款承受能力的人工审查，不适合批准向中小企业提供大量贷款所需的快速决策。此前估计中小企业资金缺口为每年22亿英镑。在2019冠状病毒病之后，这一数字将大幅提高。尽管中小企业申请人需要人工处理，但缺乏金融经验/技能的企业主自然会对接受他们可能负担不起的贷款持谨慎态度，并且缺乏充分了解贷款负担能力风险的工具。开放银行协议的出现为自动化提供了新的可能性。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。在新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19，即2019冠状病毒病）之后，中小企业解决方案将成为使成千上万需要紧急贷款融资的微型中小企业得以生存的必要条件。** 项目成果 ** 将是开发一种 ** 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 ** 基于微型中小企业现金流预测的贷款负担能力分析 **，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 ** 将是中小企业主，被算法驱动的主流贷款人拒绝，现在将有 ** 机会更快地获得CDFI提供的贷款融资 **，并能够根据开放银行提供的实时数据，充分了解此类贷款所带来的业务逻辑、风险和机遇。随着影响力融资的扩展，我们的自动化信用评级工具工具将得到进一步改进。·通过引入季节性因素来改进现金流预测，从而能够对开放式银行数据进行更深入的分析;·允许有现金交易的企业为承销商提供更多的可见性，·将会计信息与公开的银行数据进行比较，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，这在经济波动加剧的情况下尤为重要（即更好地传达新冠肺炎影响的能力），·通过确保算法迭代的相关变量在设计中得到分析，并返回到在2021年第2季度以后交付动态迭代时结束使用。·这些改进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，简单的预测将难以以自动化的方式提供有意义的信息。我们的工具仍然是小型企业的“独一无二”。

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 Typically, automated decisions are driven by data from credit bureaus and Companies House which is out-of-date and for a rapidly evolving micro-business bears little relationship to their current status.**Current solutions offered by CDFIs** are often based on manual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.