A new report by Fintech Nation revealed on Tuesday a significant obstacle to fintech-led innovation in Singapore’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector, with 85 percent of fintechs reporting they have been denied or delayed access to essential banking APIs by incumbent banks.

According to the report, despite Singapore’s position as a regional fintech leader, the findings expose a persistent bottleneck: limited data access and opaque engagement protocols between banks and non-bank financial service providers.

This directly impacts innovation, competition, and access to capital for the country’s vast base of small and medium-sized enterprises.

According to the report, 85 percent of fintech firms say their access to banking APIs has been delayed or denied, curtailing their ability to deliver seamless digital services to SMEs.

Meanwhile, only 10 percent of fintechs surveyed have access to real-time SME banking data, stifling their potential to offer timely services such as credit scoring, embedded finance and personalized lending solutions.

It is also noted that fintechs report inconsistent and unstructured dialogue with financial institutions, highlighting the need for a more transparent, structured and inclusive approach to API partnerships.

The report calls for a multi-stakeholder push to develop collaborative API sandboxes that allow fintechs to test integrations with bank systems in a risk-controlled environment.

It also urges to create a centralized API directory that maps out access protocols across major banks and helps standardize entry points, and strengthen regulatory guidelines to reduce subjectivity in decision-making and promote a more inclusive digital finance ecosystem for SMEs.

“This is a wake-up call. Fintechs are playing an increasingly vital role in SME finance, yet the lack of accessible infrastructure threatens to stall progress,

“Singapore has the tools and ambition to lead in this space, but action is needed now to ensure inclusive growth,” the spokesperson of Fintech Nation said.

The findings also reflect perspectives from fintechs across lending, corporate services, software as a service (SaaS) platforms, and digital payments, and are intended to spark constructive dialogue between regulators, banks, and technology providers.

Fintech Nation is a Public Benefits Corporation (PBC) comprising investment platform , thinktank and ecosystem builder.

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