OCBC to offer same-day digital invoice financing to SMEs in tie-up with Sesami

SMALL and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that transact with the government using InvoiceNow on e-procurement platform Sesami will, from October, be able to receive same-day loan approvals through digital invoice financing from OCBC.

This move comes as a result of a partnership between Sesami, a business-to-business procurement platform that has the largest share among service providers on the InvoiceNow network, and OCBC.

A quarter of the more than 55,000 SMEs transacting on the InvoiceNow network are registered with Sesami, OCBC and Sesami said in a joint release on Tuesday (Aug 8).

Under the partnership, SMEs will be able to tap same-day financing approval from OCBC of up to 90 per cent of the invoice amount.

SMEs will not need to submit bank statements or financial reports, as the bank will assess their credit quality based on the transaction data on the e-invoices.

“One of the common problems facing SMEs is timely access to funding to meet their cash flow needs,” said Eric Ong, OCBC head of SME embedded finance and middle market and services for global commercial banking.

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“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 cash flow, allowing them to react more swiftly to capture growth opportunities,” he added.

Some 200,000 e-invoices worth S$3 billion are expected to be transacted on the InvoiceNow platform in the next 12 months, with more than half coming from government vendors, Sesami said, citing internal data and expected transaction growth.