Sydney, Australia | 14 March 2024

In Australia, the economic landscape thrives on the foundation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), comprising a staggering 97% of the nation’s 2.6 million businesses¹. These enterprises serve as vital contributors to output, employment and income. However, recent economic shifts, including heightened inflation, interest rates, and diminished household wealth, have prompted SME owners to exercise caution in financial matters (and prompted banks to tighten their risk appetite, leading to a decline in demand for SME lending.

Despite these challenges, SME lending remains pivotal, constituting over half of outstanding business loans in the country. However, the lending landscape has remained relatively unchanged over the past decade, with smaller businesses facing higher borrowing costs and greater default risks compared to their larger counterparts.

Traditionally, the assessment of creditworthiness has heavily relied on manual processes driven by bankers’ subjective judgment, leaving room for inefficiencies and biases. However, in the era of technological advancement, Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a transformative solution to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of credit decisions.

Leveraging AI to empower lenders

Rich Data Co (RDC) has been at the forefront of this revolution, leveraging AI to empower bankers, credit analysts, and portfolio managers in making informed, predictive, and risk-based decisions. By harnessing data, including transactional records, financial statements, and lending accounts, our AI decisioning platform enables deeper insights into a business’s financial patterns, facilitating more accurate lending decisions.

Combining machine learning with knowledge management, our platform delivers heightened predictive capabilities, offering a nuanced understanding of lending scenarios. Moreover, the integration of AI with rule-based decision systems supports compliance with banking policies while adhering to robust risk governance frameworks.

Crucially, the adoption of AI in SME lending not only enhances efficiency but also fosters transparency and accountability. Each lending decision is meticulously tracked and stored, enabling ongoing monitoring and future reference, thereby ensuring compliance and explainability.

In a challenging economic climate, where access to credit is vital for SME growth, the transformative potential of AI in lending cannot be overlooked. By embracing innovative solutions like RDC’s AI decisioning platform, banks can not only streamline their lending processes but also trigger the growth of Australian SMEs when they need it most.

Contact us today to explore how AI can transform SME lending and support the expansion of your commercial portfolio, contributing to the prosperity of Australian businesses.

¹ The ABS defines a medium-sized business as having between 20 and 199 employees (inclusive), and a large business as having more than 200 employees. In APRA’s lending data, for the largest reporting entities a business is classified as small or medium if it has an annual turnover of less than $75 million; within this, a business is considered small if it has an exposure to the reporting lending entity of less than $1.5 million.