OCBC Bank and Fundaztic, P2P lending platform licensed by the Securities Commission have entered into a collaborative agreement to enhance access to financing for micro, small and new businesses which forms the largest base of SMEs in the country currently facing difficulty to obtain funding for business growth.

The effort will see OCBC Bank referring to Fundaztic, viable SMEs needing business financing but does not fulfil the current risk appetite of the bank such as having insufficient track records as required. This follows a similar move by UOB Bank in partnering with Funding Societies earlier this month

According to OCBC Bank Chief Executive Officer Dato’ Ong Eng Bin, the Bank has long supported the SME community and this effort represented another way of partnering meaningfully with viable business that might not easily qualify for standard bank loans.

“With the emergence of peer-to-peer financing platforms, opportunities that were previously unheard of are now available. However, there continues to be a gap between those in need and those in a position to meet the need. We are delighted to play our part in bridging this gap through our partnership with Peoplender (Fundaztic),” he said.

Since its launch Fundaztic has successfully disbursed closed to RM15 million in funding to more than 170 SMEs of which, more than 50% are businesses that are 3 years or lesser in operations.

“As an online platform in a new industry that is barely one year old, the ability to reach out to all viable SMEs is limited.This is why the collaboration with OCBC is promising as the bank have a much wider reach in terms of their branch network across the country as well as their human resources.

This collaborative effort will definitely be a win in terms of enhancing access to financing for SMEs and strengthen the lending ecosystem which will, in turn, boost the economy” said Kristine Ng, CEO of Fundaztic

Once OCBC has passed the details of the SMEs to Fundaztic, the SMEs shall be further contacted by Fundaztic’s team to guide them on the application process which is fully online.  Therefore, SMEs across the country would be able to gain the opportunity to raise funding via this new, alternative platform anytime, anywhere across any devices.