PETALING JAYA: Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd has clinched the “Best SME Financing” award at The Asian Banker Excellence in Retail Financial Services International Awards 2023 for its innovative digital solutions which make financing more accessible to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME).
The bank was benchmarked against more than 100 financial institutions around the world and emerged tops in the business lending category winning the “Best SME Financing” award for its digital SME financing initiatives which include fully digital collateral-free financing solutions for up to RM1 million via Alliance Digital SME Express Financing and Alliance Digital SME Cash Flow Financing. Both can be applied for online and requires only one single document for submission.
These digital solutions also won recognition at two other recent awards programmes – the Global SME Banking Innovation Awards 2023 for “Microfinance Product of the Year” as well as at the Retail Banker International Asia Trailblazer Awards 2023 for “Best Loan Offering”.
“Over the last few years, we have grown our market share in the SME industry from 3.4% to 5%, growing even through the challenges of the global pandemic. The inroads we have built has been further strengthened by the innovations in our product and service offerings as well robust digital platforms that provides fast and relevant solutions to meet our customers’ needs,” said Raymond Chui, Alliance Bank’s group chief SME and commercial banking officer.
He added that the digital user journey introduced for MSME saw a 71% better completion rate since inception while customers only need an average of 10 minutes to complete their remote form submission which also features a 30% improvement on the number of details they have to provide during submission.
Earlier this year, Alliance Bank launched its MSME Business Outlook 2023 report which found that insufficient cashflow and working capital to be among the common barriers to the growth aspirations for MSMEs with 42.9% expecting cash flow to be an issue for them to capture business opportunities this year.
“MSMEs remain optimistic about making business decisions as one in three (32.9%) also said that they are still willing to take bolder strides for better future gains. Our support to enable their growth and help them to overcome their challenges is a helping hand towards maximising their impact and contribution to the economy in which they play a significant role,” Chui said.
