Mind the Gap: The Need for Speedy, Accessible SME Lending in Asia Pacific
Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the champions of economy, representing 90% of all businesses worldwide and providing more than 50% of employment. But despite their essential role, 40% of global SMEs don’t have access to the funding they need to operate. Forty-six percent of those SMEs are located in APAC.
That leaves a global $5.2 trillion funding gap that could help both businesses and lenders grow.
So why hasn’t this opportunity been seized? Examine the biggest challenges facing SME lenders and discover the solutions that will help bridge the gap in our ebook, Mind the Gap: The Need for Speedy, Accessible SME Lending.
Uncover how you can tap into diverse lending opportunities and implement the technology to:
Mind the Gap: The Need for Speedy, Accessible SME Lending in North America
Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the champions of economy, representing 90% of all businesses worldwide and providing more than 50% of employment. But despite their essential role, 40% of global SMEs don’t have access to the funding they need to operate. In North America, that figure encompasses roughly 41% of small-to-medium sized businesses.
That leaves a global $5.2 trillion funding gap that could help both businesses and lenders grow.
So why hasn’t this opportunity been seized? Examine the biggest challenges facing SME lenders and discover the solutions that will help bridge the gap in our ebook, Mind the Gap: The Need for Speedy, Accessible SME Lending.
Uncover how you can tap into diverse lending opportunities and implement the technology to:
Frictionless, End-to-End Onboarding with Case Management
How to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency
How can you easily optimize applications and cases that need human intervention? And still ensure an end-to-end, holistic approach that reduces friction and improves operational efficiency?
Discover how a referral handling solution that can integrate seamlessly with your decisioning solution can help ensure frictionless investigations and streamlined onboarding experiences for your customers.
Discover how to expedite case handling for frictionless customer experiences
Mind the Gap: The Need for Speedy, Accessible SME Lending
Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the champions of economy, representing 90% of all businesses worldwide and providing more than 50% of employment. But despite their essential role, 40% of global SMEs don’t have access to the funding they need to operate.
That leaves a $5.2 trillion funding gap that could help both businesses and lenders grow.
So why hasn’t this opportunity been seized? Examine the biggest challenges facing SME lenders and discover the solutions that will help bridge the gap in our ebook, Mind the Gap: The Need for Speedy, Accessible SME Lending.
Uncover how you can tap into diverse lending opportunities and implement the technology to:
Building Technology Bridges How To Deliver Fast, Accurate, Accessible SME Lending
Small-to-Medium Businesses (SMEs) are the lifeblood of our economy, making up the majority of global enterprises and providing employment to half of the world’s workforce. But SME lenders have been unable to keep up with funding demand, leaving a multi-trillion dollar gap between success and failure for many of these businesses.
But lenders can begin to close that gap and seize opportunity with digital lending technology. To learn how, explore the infographic below and bridge the gap to better SME lending.
We’re using 2023 hindsight to predict the biggest trends in financial services for 2024.
For our first episode of Season 2, our Provenir hosts share their insights on the biggest lessons from 2023 and gaze into their crystal balls to forecast what 2024 might look like across the industry.
Listen in for the unique, on-the-ground perspectives from hosts Kathy Stares for North America, Bharath Vellore for APAC, and José Vargas for LatAm.
From digitization, to credit inclusion, to operationalizing technology – and, yes, AI – our leaders break down the nuances in their regions and the trends you can’t miss.
Listen Now
Tune into our Podcast on Apple or Spotify by clicking the icons below.
Apple Podcast
Spotify Podcast
The Panelists:
Kathy Stares
Kathy Stares is the Executive Vice President of North America at Provenir, a global leader in AI-powered risk decisioning software. As a member of Provenir’s executive team, she is introducing creative account management approaches to support the company’s aggressive growth strategy.
Kathy brings more than 20 years of experience in fintech and has a deep knowledge and curiosity about risk decisioning innovation. She’s passionate about helping organizations leverage data and technology to build world-class experiences for their customers.
Prior to joining Provenir, Kathy was Chief Customer Officer at enStream, Canada’s provider of mobile verification services. Kathy received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto and attained the Women of Influence certificate. Kathy also volunteers for the Menttium organization.
Bharath Vellore
As General Manager of Asia-Pacific at Provenir, Bharath is spearheading the effort to expand Provenir’s presence in the region. He is driving the company’s strategy to quickly increase engagement with the growing number of fintechs and innovative banks seeking access to industry-leading data and AI-powered risk decisioning software for real-time credit decisioning. Vellore oversee all regional business operations including sales, pre-sales, professional services, and customer success.
Bharath brings more than 15 years of experience working with Financial Services driving revenue growth, regional expansion and business development. Prior to joining Provenir, Vellore held leadership positions at LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Dow Jones.
José Vargas
José Vargas is the executive vice president and general manager for Provenir Latin America. In this role, Vargas is responsible for leading Provenir’s ambitious expansion plans to triple its footprint in the region.
During his career, José has built and led successful sales, business development and consulting teams. He is passionate about financial inclusion, technology and inspiring a high-performance culture.
Prior to joining Provenir, Jose served in various leadership positions at FICO including Senior Business Consultant in Americas and Asia, Regional Senior Director in LAC, and Vice President & Managing Director for Western Europe & Israel. Prior to joining FICO, José spent five years in the financial services industry of Mexico and Latin-America working for Scotiabank and Citibank.
Kathy Stares
Kathy Stares is the Executive Vice President of North America at Provenir, a global leader in AI-powered risk decisioning software. As a member of Provenir’s executive team, she is introducing creative account management approaches to support the company’s aggressive growth strategy.
Kathy brings more than 20 years of experience in fintech and has a deep knowledge and curiosity about risk decisioning innovation. She’s passionate about helping organizations leverage data and technology to build world-class experiences for their customers.
Prior to joining Provenir, Kathy was Chief Customer Officer at enStream, Canada’s provider of mobile verification services. Kathy received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto and attained the Women of Influence certificate. Kathy also volunteers for the Menttium organization.
Bharath Vellore
As General Manager of Asia-Pacific at Provenir, Bharath is spearheading the effort to expand Provenir’s presence in the region. He is driving the company’s strategy to quickly increase engagement with the growing number of fintechs and innovative banks seeking access to industry-leading data and AI-powered risk decisioning software for real-time credit decisioning. Vellore oversee all regional business operations including sales, pre-sales, professional services, and customer success.
Bharath brings more than 15 years of experience working with Financial Services driving revenue growth, regional expansion and business development. Prior to joining Provenir, Vellore held leadership positions at LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Dow Jones.
José Vargas
José Vargas is the executive vice president and general manager for Provenir Latin America. In this role, Vargas is responsible for leading Provenir’s ambitious expansion plans to triple its footprint in the region.
During his career, José has built and led successful sales, business development and consulting teams. He is passionate about financial inclusion, technology and inspiring a high-performance culture.
Prior to joining Provenir, Jose served in various leadership positions at FICO including Senior Business Consultant in Americas and Asia, Regional Senior Director in LAC, and Vice President & Managing Director for Western Europe & Israel. Prior to joining FICO, José spent five years in the financial services industry of Mexico and Latin-America working for Scotiabank and Citibank.
The past year has highlighted an unsettled global climate, making it difficult for financial services companies, including fintechs and other lenders, to mitigate risk effectively. Economic KPIs are slowing as both institutions and consumers alike react to the new normal – so how can we help credit providers stay ahead of the competition?
Watch this on-demand webinar, where our panel of experts are sharing key insights on how to stay profitable amidst rapidly evolving market conditions.
With concrete examples from Turkey and elsewhere, this lively discussion include tips on:
How to take advantage of non-traditional data to confidently do business with more marginal/subprime applicants
Ways to segment customers to target the appropriate upsell/cross-sell and renewal activities
Staying ahead of the curve in identifying more fragile customers – before they default
How to implement rapid reaction feedback loops within each stage of the customer lifecycle
Trend reporting on key KPIs
How to implement and test new credit and fraud policies without additional risk
Don’t miss this opportunity to glean insights from the experts and ensure you can continue to grow your business, even in uncertain economic conditions.
2024 Global Risk Decisioning Survey: North America Special Edition
What’s top of mind for financial services providers heading into 2024?
Provenir surveyed more than 300 decision makers from a variety of financial services providers and fintechs around the globe in order to understand their:
Risk decisioning challenges
Customer management priorities
Confidence in the accuracy and flexibility of their risk models and anti-fraud measures
This special North America edition includes 2024 opportunities for providers in the region from Provenir’s Executive Vice President of North America, Kathy Stares. She covers:
For decades, customer acquisition and onboarding have been the primary focus of banks’ investments.
This made perfect sense. Competition for prime banking customers was fierce, and banks spent a lot of money trying to capture their business. When fintech came on the scene, banks rightly concluded that investments in digital account opening were critical for fending off these new competitors and maintaining their market share, especially with Millennial and Gen Z customers.
It made perfect sense … until it didn’t.
The nature of competition in financial services has changed. The digitization of banking products, the emergence of lead aggregators, and, most importantly, open banking have made it easier for bank customers to shop around and to switch financial service providers than it has ever been.
Today, the biggest challenge facing banks isn’t how to acquire new customers. It’s how to retain the valuable customers that they already have.
In this webinar, Alex Johnson (Founder, Fintech Takes) and Kathy Mitchell-Stares (EVP North America, Provenir) will:
Explain why customer management has traditionally been underinvested in by banks and the implications of this underinvestment in today’s financial services ecosystem.
Explore how open banking and other fintech innovations have fundamentally altered the competitive dynamics within financial services and placed a premium on customer retention.
Provide actionable advice for how banks can improve their customer management decisions and business processes in order to strengthen their most important customer relationships and turn customer retention into a superpower.
Divorcing your bank, debunking long-standing myths, advancing emerging tech, and approaching data ethically…
What do these topics all have in common? They’re innovative ideas our thought leaders have shared with us in our very first season of The Disruptor Sessions.
We’ve loved having fascinating conversations with our brilliant guests, so for our final episode of 2023, we’re looking back at some of the hot topics we couldn’t stop talking about. Tune in for global insights on financial inclusion, artificial intelligence, alternative data and open banking, and – our bread and butter – innovation across financial services.
We hope you’ve enjoyed season 1 and we can’t wait to see you again next year for season 2!
Listen Now
Tune into our Podcast on Apple or Spotify by clicking the icons below.
Apple Podcast
Spotify Podcast
The Panelists:
Aaron Webster
SoFi’s Aaron Webster Wants to Make It Easier to Divorce Your Bank
What’s SoFi’s secret to differentiation in a crowded fintech ecosystem? Where should we look to find the next big disruption for American financial services? North America host Kathy Stares sits down with SoFi’s Chief Risk Officer, Aaron Webster, to answer these questions and more in our very first episode of The Disruptor Sessions.
Though they used to be invisible, today they might be the future of the credit market. On this episode of The Disruptor Sessions, we’re exploring the new-to-credit (NTC) population. Though they used to be invisible, today they might be the future of the credit market.
North America host Kathy Stares (Provenir’s EVP, Americas) and TransUnion’s VP of International Research and Consulting, Nidhi Verma, discuss the immense opportunities in engaging this powerful group. Drawing from TU’s recent report on NTCs, they debunk the myths around risk, define the business case for financial inclusion, and develop a vision of what the future of financial inclusion could look like globally.
Kike Fashola & Ceci López
Carbon’s Ceci López and Kike Fashola Are Banking on Nigerian Fintech Innovation
These risk leaders are disrupting the status quo across Africa’s fintech landscape. In our first MEA-focused episode, host Adrian Pillay sits down with digital bank Carbon’s Ceci López (Head of Decisioning) and Kike Fashola (Chief Risk Officer) to take a look at the relationship between risk and reward and the future of fintech in Nigeria.
They dig into topics like using data science to support innovation, how to drive adoption of emerging tech in an emerging market, and some of the implications we may not always think of when we talk about AI in risk management.
Costin Mincovici
tbi Bank’s Costin Mincovici Wants to See More ‘Aha’ Moments in Digital Banking
Costin Mincovici, tbi Bank’s Chief Credit Officer, is a risk leader that likes to say yes. Yes to mobile-first financial services, yes to digital banking disruption, and yes to multi-country risk strategies that offer the accessible experiences that can make or break a provider.
He shares his insights with our EMEA host and Provenir’s regional leader, Frode Berg. They explore everything from the ethical implications of data usage, to market approaches that protect the interests of both the customer and bank, to the “aha” moments Costin hopes to see more of across fintech.
Aaron Webster
SoFi’s Aaron Webster Wants to Make It Easier to Divorce Your Bank
What’s SoFi’s secret to differentiation in a crowded fintech ecosystem? Where should we look to find the next big disruption for American financial services? North America host Kathy Stares sits down with SoFi’s Chief Risk Officer, Aaron Webster, to answer these questions and more in our very first episode of The Disruptor Sessions.
Though they used to be invisible, today they might be the future of the credit market. On this episode of The Disruptor Sessions, we’re exploring the new-to-credit (NTC) population. Though they used to be invisible, today they might be the future of the credit market.
North America host Kathy Stares (Provenir’s EVP, Americas) and TransUnion’s VP of International Research and Consulting, Nidhi Verma, discuss the immense opportunities in engaging this powerful group. Drawing from TU’s recent report on NTCs, they debunk the myths around risk, define the business case for financial inclusion, and develop a vision of what the future of financial inclusion could look like globally.
Kike is a graduate of Covenant University, where she majored in Industrial Mathematics.
Kike is a positive and proactive individual who is always looking for ways to improve. She is not afraid to challenge the status quo and is always looking for the silver lining.
Kike Fashola & Ceci López
Carbon’s Ceci López and Kike Fashola Are Banking on Nigerian Fintech Innovation
These risk leaders are disrupting the status quo across Africa’s fintech landscape. In our first MEA-focused episode, host Adrian Pillay sits down with digital bank Carbon’s Ceci López (Head of Decisioning) and Kike Fashola (Chief Risk Officer) to take a look at the relationship between risk and reward and the future of fintech in Nigeria.
They dig into topics like using data science to support innovation, how to drive adoption of emerging tech in an emerging market, and some of the implications we may not always think of when we talk about AI in risk management.
He has held various leadership roles at leading Credit Risk companies such as TransUnion, Dun & Bradstreet, Experian and FICO. He is Vice President of Sales at Provenir, and is responsible for its business in Middle East and Africa.
Costin Mincovici
tbi Bank’s Costin Mincovici Wants to See More ‘Aha’ Moments in Digital Banking
Costin Mincovici, tbi Bank’s Chief Credit Officer, is a risk leader that likes to say yes. Yes to mobile-first financial services, yes to digital banking disruption, and yes to multi-country risk strategies that offer the accessible experiences that can make or break a provider.
He shares his insights with our EMEA host and Provenir’s regional leader, Frode Berg. They explore everything from the ethical implications of data usage, to market approaches that protect the interests of both the customer and bank, to the “aha” moments Costin hopes to see more of across fintech.
