Same-day loan approval gives immediate access to capital to SMEs.

Singapore, 8 August 2023 – The use of the nationwide e-invoicing network InvoiceNow is set to get a boost in October 2023.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) that issue e-invoices to the Singapore Government using InvoiceNow on e-procurement platform SESAMi, will be able to access digital invoice financing from OCBC. With same-day financing approval by OCBC of up to 90% of the invoice amount, these SMEs are able to access funds quickly. The Bank taps on the transaction data on the e-invoices to assess the SMEs’ credit quality. As a result, they will not need to submit bank statements or financial reports. Loan disbursement and settlement will be automated by using OCBC’s Application Programming Interface (API).

Since the launch of InvoiceNow in 2019, over 55,000 SME businesses are registered on the nationwide e-invoicing network. A quarter of them are registered with SESAMi, which has the largest share among service providers on this network.

Based on data with customers' consent and anticipated transaction growth, SESAMi estimates that InvoiceNow e-invoices will hit 200,000 and S$3 billion respectively over the next 12 months. It expects more than half of the e-invoices to come from Government vendors. In February 2023, it was announced in the Singapore Parliament that InvoiceNow will be the default e-invoice submission channel for all Government vendors within the next few years.

Mr Sharath Singh, Commercial Director, SESAMi, said, "This will be another step that we take in integrating trade with finance. The deployment of this innovative digital financing solution for our B2G vendors using InvoiceNow will allow them to gain immediate access to working capital through OCBC as soon as they transact via InvoiceNow using SESAMi."

Mr Eric Ong, Head of SME Embedded Finance and Middle Market and Services, Global Commercial Banking, OCBC, said, “One of the common problems facing SMEs is timely access to funding to meet their cash flow needs. We have made it a priority to develop solutions that avail financing to these SMEs in a much quicker, simplified manner, such as this partnership with SESAMi. Given the sheer number of government contracts awarded to SMEs, and the expected growth in their use of InVoiceNow, this partnership will enable them to optimise their working capital and cashflow, allowing them to react more swiftly to capture growth opportunities.”