Standard Chartered Bank and the MISA Joint Stock Company announced a strategic partnership on April 14 to offer unsecured invoice financing facilities to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam via the MISA Lending Platform, with highly competitive interest rates and straightforward processes.

The partnership combines MISA’s pioneering application of cloud-based technologies to simplify and improve the efficiency of client processes, and Standard Chartered’s global expertise in business banking and financing capabilities to deliver significant value to clients.

Ms. Michele Wee, CEO of Standard Chartered Vietnam, said the strategic partnership allows the bank to provide financing to SMEs, which are a critical segment in Vietnam, in an efficient and meaningful way. “We will continue to work to deepen the suite of products needed to increase the viability of SMEs that will ultimately impact the grassroots of society.”

“The cooperation between MISA and Standard Chartered Bank will provide much-needed funding to hundreds of thousands of underbanked SMEs without collateral via MISA Lending,” said Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hoang, Vice Chairman of MISA. “MISA is committed to continuously applying the most advanced technologies to improve SME access to affordable financing while reducing the cost and risk for our bank partners.”

According to Mr. Harmander Mahal, Head of Consumer, Private, and Business Banking for Vietnam and Asia Cluster Markets at Standard Chartered Bank, by providing SMEs with more effective access to financing solutions, Standard Chartered can accelerate broader financial inclusion and further contribute to the economy’s growth through this important segment.

In particular, clients joining the program are local SMEs operating either in manufacturing, trading, or services, which require financing against e-invoices issued by them to meet their working capital requirements, which in turn supports their business growth. SMEs who have access to MISA Lending are now able to request an indicative loan amount just through two clicks on their computer and receive in-principle approval within 30 minutes.

Through explicit consent by clients for the use of their data to process loan applications, Standard Chartered uses multiple data points and digital underwriting to provide suitable credit limits to SMEs. The official onboarding part will only take a few working days before SMEs are able to present invoices for financing. Through the pilot phase, this delivery has helped many SMEs access funds from Standard Chartered in a simple and convenient manner.