Competition to Serve SMEs’ Financial Needs Growing

Competition to serve the financial needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is growing, resulting in a variety of products designed to make business easier for SMEs. This includes specialized one-stop-shop platforms that stitch together an ecosystem of specialist providers. Both neobanks and incumbent financial institutions are making great progress in their SME offering, although incumbent financial institutions are struggling more with finding profits with these solutions. Neobanks tend not to struggle with this as much due to their typical focus on smaller firms with simpler needs and their greater overall cost efficiency. Going forward, it will be important for any financial institution working with SMEs to develop smart solutions for SMEs today that will also solve their anticipated problems of tomorrow.