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Prathap Thompson

Chief Architect, Open Banking Strategic Initiatives group, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, TCS

Seizing the Open Banking Opportunity to Transform SME Banking 

The small and medium enterprise (SME) segment remains underserved by the banking system despite contributing substantially to economic development. However, the Open Banking regulation is enabling fintechs to launch innovative digital offerings to meet the needs of nextgen SMEs. Incumbents too are transforming the future of SME banking by harnessing the opportunities offered by the regulation and building application programming interfaces (APIs) while also consuming other banks’ APIs to create new digital offerings.

The benefits of Open Banking for SMEs are many – comprehensive suite of digital offerings, contextualized offers, and shift in focus to overall business health while evaluating credit proposals. To seamlessly deliver on this and reimagine the future of SME banking, banks will need to position themselves as partners to their SME customers. Achieving this will require banks to:

  • Leverage open banking to launch compelling digital offerings exclusively for SMEs
  • Consider partnering with a vendor who can help banks co-create propositions and leverage the fintech ecosystem