CBA has announced a new, fintech-inspired SME lending product that uses invoices as collateral for business lending.
Stream Working Capital, their new digital lending product, is designed with fintech Waddle and can give SMEs swift access to finance without property collateral.
It is available now to SME customers and will be coming to commercial brokers in the future. According to CBA general manager working capital, Andrew Speers, it can help SMEs by removing the barrier of entry that comes from property requirements.
“Stream is a digital working capital product,” he said. “Customers offer us their business assets in the form of invoices as collateral to size the lending. Imagine you’re a SME owner and you’re going out to big and small businesses fulfilling your services, and you’re generating invoices.”
“What we do is look at those invoices and take them as security. Imagine that SME is using something like Xero or Myob as their accounting package: we take the data directly via API out of that accounting package, like a pipe directly into their accounting system.”
“We can instantaneously assess and provide approvals for that working capital. As that business owner is sat at home at night watching TV, worried about how they’re going to pay staff wages or property rent, they can apply for stream online.”
“Instantaneously, upon clicking share that data and get an instant indicative response based on the live feed of data from the accounting system. On an ongoing basis, they’ve got a portal that they can access 24/7 online when and where they need it, backed up by a full service team.”
“They can access their working capital as their sales go. As sales grow and their working capital grows, they can borrow more. It’s a very accessible, very clever digital solution that can help our customers to get on with running their business and stop working about working capital.”
“As new entrepreneurs and innovators enter the market, having to secure their working capital lending against property assets, with growing property prices, is something that is very difficult.”
“Stream allows new businesses without property assets that have been accumulated over years or who can’t get into the property ladder to get working capital solutions. It helps those customers without needing the property requirement.”
