Video: Why banks and SMEs in the region should adopt mobile banking solutions

Small businesses in the UAE and across the GCC are facing unprecedented challenges as they navigate the current economic situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

With uncertainty on several fronts, it is imperative that they have access to digital solutions that increase efficiencies and make it easier to do business in any environment.

Fintech solutions in the GCC are rapidly growing and countries like the UAE and Bahrain are seeing a rise in technology options targeting small businesses.

“To be truly free from an administration burden, a company should rely on lenders that provide online business banking along with an ecosystem of solutions to support business processes. These banks should also be able to offer just-in-time products and financing as if each SME user was assisted by the bank’s employee of the month,” says Bartosz Lerka, banking industry consultant at global IT firm Comarch.

“Banks can either develop relevant pieces of software typically used by SMEs or turn to several vendors to acquire ready-made solutions and integrate them into banks’ systems – both of which seem feasible, yet lengthy.

“Optionally, lenders can select a vendor who can provide banks with a ready business banking for small businesses connected with cloud services to support its daily tasks,” Lerka adds.

One such solution is the small business mobile banking app launched by Comarch, which has been developed to make it easier for entrepreneurs to manage their day-to-day finance and business tasks. It builds on cash management, embedded invoicing and financing options and grants access to a wide range of cloud-based services designed for SMEs such as accounting, e-commerce and customer analytics.

The features offered by the app will enable SMEs to handle a big portion of their business and finance management processes just using their smartphones, offering efficiencies in terms of time and money as well as ease of operating.

For banks catering to small businesses, the app offers a ready to deploy platform with financing offered in line with the bank’s risk appetite as well as the option to complement the offering with another one from a fintech. SME receivables and payables also provide a ready-made input for the bank’s credit scoring engines and risk analyst.

Some of the main features of the app include:

Cash management

• Automatic setting up of payment orders for issued invoices

• Multiple methods to choose from to pay for an invoice

• Easy access to all the accounts, balances, deposits and payments

• Payments automatically matched to the outstanding invoices; so no need to manually reconcile transactions with invoices

Instant invoicing

• The app pre-fills data based on the user’s geolocation and business activity

• Provides a direct option to add discounts, change a payment date and send an invoice directly, with no need to switch to the ERP system

• Receivables and payables management: users can see invoices per client and track their due dates

Cash flow assistant

• Offers a clear view of cash flow based on input invoices

• Provides target, base case and financial distress forecasts

• Suggests hints on how to get paid faster

Financing on-the-go

• Small and micro businesses can apply for invoice financing right from the app when it’s needed

• The app knows when your customer may not have enough to pay the bills and checks available financing options

The app also comes with built-in security tools such as biometric authentication and system protection, malware detections, application monitoring and device attestation. It also offers secure processing, with the user PIN number neither stored on the device nor sent between the mobile device and server.

For more information about the mobile banking app, click here: https://comarch.cc/3bZZE5P