Technological innovation and a changing customer landscape have transformed the banking world over the past decade. The acceleration of Financial Technology since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008 has created a vast range of new and improved services that pose a favourable alternative to traditional business banks, significantly when serving small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers.

The fintech sector is revolutionising the financial services industry by simplifying transactions, reducing costs, enabling innovation, empowering customers, and enhancing security. There are currently over 1,600 firms operating in the UK fintech sector, a number projected to double by 2030. 

There are two key reasons there has been an upsurge in UK-based fintech. Firstly, there have been technological advances, such as the impact of smartphones and improved levels of connectivity between businesses and their customers. The second factor is the way in which traditional banks – and financial regulators – reacted to the GFC. 

A changing banking landscape

Stung by the losses of the crisis, banks around the globe drastically reduced their lending activity, whilst regulators made a number of changes aimed at increasing competition in the sector and diluting the power and influence of the major players.

At the same time, the biggest banks’ lack of market dynamism and aversion to risk meant they were slow off the mark when developing new services based on the latest technology and changing customer needs creating a significant gap in the market for alternative service providers and fintech firms.

Many mainstream business banking services have been, and in many cases still are, inefficient, slow and overly expensive. Against this backdrop, dynamic and innovative providers have developed new ways of serving the needs of an increasingly global, complex and mobile business community. 

Among the areas where financial innovation has had the most impact are:

Lending: The rise of alternative finance providers has created a hugely valuable new source of business funding. Alternative lenders can pool deposits from individuals and businesses to loan to small companies. According to the British Business Bank [BBB Report], alternative lenders advanced more than £5bn to UK borrowers in 2021 alone.

Online and mobile banking: 24/7 bank account access has been made possible by the development of online services, available wherever and whenever the customer needs it. Some of the most successful new challenger banks provide digital-current accounts, incorporating other technology-based services that include financial management software in a single package.

Payment processing: This is an area where traditional banks perform particularly poorly. The process of transferring cash from one account to another – especially when it comes to cross-border transactions – has long been ripe for disruption. In a report published shortly before the beginning of the pandemic, the Bank of England said: “Fintech also has the potential to reduce inefficiencies in cross-border payments - regarded as expensive, slow and sometimes lacking in transparency compared to domestic payments. For example, they can cost ten times more than an average domestic payment and take up to three days to clear.” [BoE Report]

What does this mean for small businesses?

Ultimately, the increasing availability of these new, improved services helps make life easier and cheaper to run a business. A recent report published by advisory service EY said the UK’s world-leading fintech industry “drives much-needed choice and new services for consumers and SMEs”. They added: “Fintech will be the catalyst for new services and ways of operating that can have a real impact on how consumers and SMEs operate, such as improving the productivity and ability of SMEs to scale.” [EY Report]

The availability of a cost-effective and efficient cross-border payment service, for example, potentially allows businesses to access millions of new customers in overseas territories. Another significant advantage of fintech services, in general, is the speed at which these businesses can complete the onboarding processes required: this can take a matter of minutes in many instances, compared to as long as several days when registering with a mainstream bank. Similarly, the speed and simplicity with which transactions are complete: faster cross-border digital payments, for example, give UK SMEs the opportunity to grow their customer base in international markets to diversify their supply chains to cut costs and improve operational efficiencies.

At this time, when smaller companies face unprecedented pressures, from rising costs and higher interest rates to skills shortages and complex supply chains, the cost savings and operational advantages offered by fintech services are more significant than ever. 

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