OCBC Rolls Out Digital Invoice Financing for SMEs
(10 August 2023 - Singapore) OCBC is now offering digital invoice financing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that issue e-invoices through InvoiceNow and SESAMi.
In a press release, OCBC said that it is offering same-day financing approval to up to 90 percent of the invoice amount, enabling SMEs to access funds quickly.
To do this, OCBC will make use of transaction data on e-invoices to assess SMEs’ credit quality. This meant that SMEs will no longer need to submit bank statements or financial reports.
Over 55,000 SMEs are registered in InvoiceNow, Singapore’s nationwide e-invoicing network. A quarter of them are further registered with SESAMi, a platform helping SMEs manage buying and selling processes online.
Based on data with customers' consent and anticipated transaction growth, SESAMi estimates that InvoiceNow e-invoices will hit 200,000 and S$3b respectively over the next 12 months. It expects more than half of the e-invoices to come from Government vendors.
In February 2023, it was announced in the Singapore Parliament that InvoiceNow will be the default e-invoice submission channel for all government vendors within the next few years.
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