(4 June 2019 – United Kingdom) Spanish lender Santander and e-commerce platform eBay have agreed a lending partnership for small businesses as the two groups attempt to fend off competition from tech giants and newer digital rivals.
Asto, a financial technology app owned by Santander, will start offering loans to the more than 200,000 SMEs that sell products through eBay in the UK later this year.
The bank will be able to connect to eBay’s data on measures such as sales and cash flow to identify prospective clients and strengthen its credit decision-making process.
For eBay, the service is similar to an agreement the e-commerce giant has with Square to offer lending products to its US sellers as it tries to catch Amazon and fend off younger rivals such as Etsy.
Amazon provides loans to companies that sell on its marketplace, while payments companies such as Square and PayPal — which eBay spun off in 2015 — are also pushing into the market alongside specialists such as OnDeck and Funding Circle. PayPal announced last week that it had passed $10 billion in total loans issued to small businesses.