Tech friendly Singapore bank DBS has become the first bank in the city-state to collaborate with peer-to-peer lending platforms, expanding the funding sources available to small businesses.
The new partnership agreements with lending platforms Funding Societies and MoolahSense will enable DBS to refer some of the smaller businesses that the bank is unable to lend to.
In return, the peer-to-peer (p2p) lending platforms will refer borrowers who have completed two successful rounds of fund raising to DBS for larger commercial loans and other financial solutions such as cash management. To safeguard borrowers’ privacy, the bank and p2p lenders will only share information when they have obtained borrowers’ consent in advance.
«DBS’ partnership with Funding Societies and MoolahSense is a good example of how traditional and alternative finance providers can work together to support the funding needs of small businesses. Such partnerships are becoming common in markets such as the UK and we are pleased to partner two leading p2p lenders in Singapore in this pilot programme,» said Joyce Tee, Group Head of SME Banking, DBS.
The Partners
This latest initiative marks another benchmark for DBS which has been quick to embrace fintech for its own internal use. The bank has also been working on start-up and innovation initiatives strengthening collaboration between DBS and fintechs.
Founded in 2015, Funding Societies is a Singapore-based Fintech start-up, offering an online peer-to-peer lending platform for Small-Medium Enterprises to secure loans for growth.
MoolahSense is the pioneer crowd-financing platform in Singapore that connects businesses, mainly growth SMEs, who are seeking short-term loan financing to prospective investors.
