DBS announces working capital solution for small businesses in Singapore

Enhancing the solution is DBS’s new partnership with Xero, the global accounting platform, which will speed up the process for SME customers in need of working capital loans.

A new working capital solution from Singapore-headquartered bank DBS is being rolled out to meet the needs of micro and small businesses. 

Called DBS Quick Finance, the solution will give these customers almost instant access to S$300,000 (US$210,543), through an overdraft or a loan. 

Enhancing the solution is DBS’s new partnership with Xero, the global accounting platform, which will speed up the process for SME customers in need of working capital loans. 

This will be achieved by sharing their day-to-day accounting transactional records direct from Xero’s platform with DBS for credit assessment purposes. 

These products come at an opportune time as SMEs have struggled from “two years of pandemic-driven economic uncertainty, and now with inflationary pressures, a GST hike, supply chain headwinds and geopolitical tensions,” said Gene Wong, Singapore head of SME banking at DBS. 

According to the DBS SME Pulse Check Survey published earlier this year, over 85% of SMEs indicated that ensuring consistent cashflow and managing costs was a key business priority in 2022

The DBS Quick Finance application process takes one minute to apply, one second to approve and in some instances, provides instant disbursement. This is enabled through artificial intelligence and data analytics.  

AI and machine learning will enable DBS to offer a more personalised service, gain a deeper understanding of SMEs, and identify and solve their financial problems earlier than is currently possible. 

The introduction of this new working capital solution follows DBS rolling out a range of enhancements over the past year to make the banking journey smoother for business owners. 

These include a fully-digitalised onboarding process, digital loan applications and a multi-currency account for cross-border transactions. 

Since 2020, DBS has approved over 16,000 collateral-free loans totalling more than S$7 billion to SMEs in Singapore, with over 90% of these loans going to micro and small enterprises. 

Wong commented: “Having worked hand in glove with our micro and small businesses to tide through the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19, we are confident that business owners will remain resilient, and we will emerge stronger together.” 

Image source: DBS

Josh Poyser Josh Poyser is an editor at FinTech Intel. He has written about fintech for several years and appeared at FinTech Connect 2023 on the 'Unlocking Success: The Art of Fintech PR' panel.