ANEXT Bank, a digital wholesale bank incorporated in Singapore and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ant Group, on Wednesday unveiled its latest initiative to drive further industry collaboration as part of its mission to enable effortless and inclusive financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

ANEXT Bank said in a statement the initiative aims to improve and scale embedded finance for SMEs, making it easier for businesses to access financing, as well as to monitor and manage it on platforms where they run their business.

The ANEXT Programme for Industry Specialists1 is open to the participation of all e-commerce marketplaces, fintech companies and digital solutions providers who support SMEs’ cross-border operations through digital-based services or platforms.

ANEXT Bank will collaborate with these industry specialists to expand the breadth of service offerings for SMEs on their platforms to include digital financial services offered by ANEXT Bank.

This will allow SMEs to have a one-stop access to a more comprehensive suite of services, and to gain a consolidated view on their business such as wallet balance, loan amount and repayment status, etc.

“With our secure banking capabilities and first-hand knowledge on what it takes to do business digitally, ANEXT Bank is well positioned to help partners unlock more growth opportunities by enabling access to financing to SMEs on their platforms,

“At the same time, industry specialists are domain experts in their respective fields and they can provide deep insights on the challenges and needs of SMEs. Together, we can create unique use cases and solve financing pain points for SMEs at scale,” said Toh Su Mei, the Chief Executive Officer of ANEXT Bank.

FinTech company IN Financial Technologies and Business Process Management provider Bizmann System (Bizmann) are among the first to take part in the programme. The two partners combined are serving close to 15,000 SMEs.

“We are always looking for ways to value-add our offerings, thus the collaboration with ANEXT Bank to enhance our financing capabilities on our platform is a truly synergistic partnership,” said Eldwin Wong, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, IN Financial Technologies.

“Our customers, most of whom being distributors and wholesalers in the traditional and new value chain will benefit from embedded financing with the use of technologies,

“Furthermore, working with ANEXT Bank to implement the collaboration in a phased approach allows us to innovate as a Superplatform without exorbitant tech integration costs. This ability to avail financing on our platforms will be a key competitive advantage as we deepen our presence in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia,” he added.

According to Bizmann System (S) Pte Ltd Chief Executive Officer Ken Loke, as more SMEs are operating their businesses online, the process has to be holistic and seamless.

“Trade transactions are vital for business to business (B2B), so being able to avail financing on our platform reinforces our value proposition and allows us to prepare for market expansions in China, ASEAN and Australia more confidently,

“With our collaboration with ANEXT Bank, SMEs on Bizmann will be able to tap on financing specific to their needs based on transactional data points, to pay off invoices generated on our platform. The entire process is intuitive, effortless and most of all accessible,” he added.

As part of the ANEXT Programme for Industry Specialists launch, ANEXT Bank provided a preview of the ANEXT Business Loan to complement its existing ANEXT Business Account.

The ANEXT Business Loan is a fuss-free and flexible unsecured financing solution with two repayment options – “pay-per-use” and “pay monthly” – available at competitive rates. The minimum loan amount available starts at S$5,000 ($3531).

Adopting an open and collaborative approach, ANEXT Bank believes in joining hands with industry partners and public sector agencies to provide SMEs with financial services that are simpler, safer and more rewarding.

In June this year, the bank signed a two-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Proxtera to transform and enable holistic cross-border trade among SMEs and businesses through making marketplaces efficient and discoverable globally, with embedded financing, fulfillment services and SME empowerment.

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