(14 February 2017 – United Kingdom) NatWest Bank has launched Emre, a lending platform to ward off increasing completion from financial technology (fintech) lenders such as Funding Circle, Zopa and recent UK entrant Spotcap.
According to the lender, the platform promises near-instant loan decisions for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for amounts up to £150,000 ($A243,000).
Alison Rose, CEO for commercial and private banking at NatWest, said: “We’ve already broadened choices for customers, but we wanted to go one step further and create our own alternative lending platform,” she said.
The platform was developed at the bank’s innovation unit alongside Ezbob, the fintech firm behind NatWest’s lending platform. Esme will help the bank retain market share as a new breed of peer-to-peer lenders attract SME business.
The move comes following the UK banking regulator introducing a new scheme requiring high street banks to refer SMEs on to a number of alternative finance providers in cases where the bank declines to offer lending.