Banks, fintech tie-up to boost SME lending: experts

Collaboration between banks and fintech companies is needed to accelerate digital lending for small and medium enterprises (SME) as it would enable them to avail funds instantly and without complexities, according to various experts.

So, the government and Bangladesh Bank should introduce more policy support in this regard, they said.

AKM Fahim Mashroor, chief executive officer of Bdjobs.com and AjkerDeal, said both the government and Bangladesh Bank have been emphasising on SME lending for the past few years.

As a part of its efforts, the government introduced stimulus funds for SMEs to help the sector combat Covid-19.

"But the SME lending target wasn't achieved," he added.

Mashroor was addressing a workshop on "Enabling Regulatory Framework for Fintech Industry", organised by the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS).

Russell T Ahmed, president of BASIS, said even if any entity lends only Tk 2,000 to a borrower, it still needs to know details of the customer.

"Since we have national IDs and mobile phone numbers, and most mobile phone subscribers are account holders of mobile financial services, their financial transaction data can be kept in the cloud," he said.

"The digital lender can know the customers from the information stored in the cloud and then disabuse the loans easily," Ahmed added.