The Intermediary – July 2026 - Flipbook - Page 50
SPECIALIST FINANCE
Opinion
Building the dig
esearch has
highlighted that
more than half (54%)
of small businesses
now believe they’re
less likely to be
approved for a loan tthan they were
just two years ag
ago. For brokers and
alik that’s a worrying trend.
lenders alike,
long failing at
Businesses are no longer
hurdle many are choosing
the first hurdle;
t race at all.
not to enter the
It’s talked about eevery day, but
p
this isn’t a new phenomenon.
b years of outdated
Compounded by
manag
methods of risk management,
tak small
every ‘decline’ not only takes
ent
to medium enterprises
(SMES)
awa from growth but also
further away
discourag them from seeking
discourages
t an
finance, contributing to
estima £22bn funding gap. In
estimated
t
truth, technology
got us here.
T ‘computer says no’ era
This
s
of SME lending is a symptom
lega inertia. Rigid
of legacy
scoring mechanisms, and
static financial snapshots
which fail to capture
the dynamic nature of
modern businesses,
lead to countless
missed opportunities.
t understand the
It fails to
inno
resilience and innovation
that
t people of these
sits within the
t numbers.
businesses, outside of the
It had a narrow
narro insight into reasons
larg restricted
to say yes and is largely
inf
by the information
available to it.
man this has become
Worse, for many,
business as usual.
However while technology helped
However,
man of these challenges,
create many
t
it can also help address them.
By
t
innovating together
to create an
cent
ecosystem centered
on business
t brokers, lenders and
needs – and the
t
advisers who support them
– we can
connect approach to
create a more connected
R
ANDY TRIMMER
is director of technology
at Simply Asset Finance
finance that improves outcomes for
everyone involved.
I call this framework the ‘digital
handshake’ – a modern foundation for
trust, transparency and collaboration
that combines technology with human
expertise, rather than replacing it.
This is built on three pillars.
Embracing smart data
The advent of Open Banking was a
revolutionary step, requiring financial
institutions to enable data sharing
and giving SMEs greater control
over ‘their’ financial information.
Today with more than 16.5 million
live user connections across the UK,
this potential is being realised but
also lays out a structure that can be
taken further.
Open Finance looks to take Open
Banking further and offer customers
insights into their financial contracts
that they can then share.
And now, smart data is moving
beyond simple transactional history.
Real-time data feeds – from accounting
platforms, e-commerce sales, and
supply chain records – mean we can
now construct a comprehensive,
transparent picture of a business’s
operational and financial ‘health’.
This live view allows lenders to
understand risk with far greater
