Finastra announces Banking as a Service collaboration with Microsoft for SMEs

By Edlyn Cardoza

Finastra today announced a Banking as a Service (BaaS) collaboration with Microsoft to bring new lending options to thousands of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) – a sector severely underserved when accessing finance. SMEs using Microsoft Dynamics 365 will be able to access and unlock vital financing offers without leaving their business management platform.

This move will enable SME owners to access relevant and valuable business financing seamlessly and frictionless. Users will be able to unlock lending options within Dynamics 365. With consent from the SME, the solution will use information an SME already stores within Microsoft Dynamics 365, making it easier for them to apply for lending. Providing banks with additional information, including accounts receivable and payable records, will improve lending decisions and time to cash for SMEs. Finastra’s expansive network of over 5,000 financial institutions in the US will allow SMEs to access the most relevant and valuable financing options for their specific business needs.

“We are extremely excited to bring this additional finance capability to SMEs to ease the process of accessing capital, and power competitive financing offers in less time,” said Angus Ross, Chief Revenue Officer, Banking as a Service, at Finastra. “This lending proposition for Microsoft Dynamics 365 reinforces Finastra’s leadership in open and embedded finance. It demonstrates the huge benefit that embedded and contextual finance will bring to the industry and the communities within it. We look forward to continuing our long-standing collaboration with Microsoft and working closely on this and future impactful projects.”

“We are proud to further expand our relationship with Finastra to drive new value for small and medium enterprises, the backbone of job creation in the world’s economy,” said Bill Borden, Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft. “By embedding secure access to key financial services in the context of Microsoft Dynamics 365, our SME customers will have a faster path to the financing options and critical capital they need to thrive.”

The Finastra SME embedded finance solution on Microsoft Dynamics 365 will be integrated with open APIs through Finastra’s FusionFabric.cloud platform. The solution is expected to go live in Summer this year, with an initial focus on North American customers