The company gained traction last year with 40% increase in sign-ups and the bank’s suite of solutions for SMEs in Southeast Asia connecting with UOB accounts and facilities. HSBC is also commendable given its decent top line growth in 2019 and having one of the highest NPS scores while also responding emphatically to the COVID-19 pandemic. The small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) banking segment continues to undergo a process of transformation in terms of how it is connecting and servicing its customer base. Similar to its retail banking counterparts, there is continued and sustained disruption from various fintech players as SME financing remains an underserved segment and funding gaps persist limiting opportunities for enterprises to scale and grow. The top 10 SME banks evaluated from this year’s programme of more than 35 institutions for the Best SME Bank in 2020 completely reflect this paradigm shift.
UOB delivered solutions to SMEs that resulted in solid revenue growth for the business and expanded the available market opportunity for the bank across the region. Almost half of total revenue now comes from outside its primary Singapore market. While OCBC showed the better top line growth at +12% for 2019 and CAGR growth at +11% from 2017 to 2019, both HSBC and UOB outperformed OCBC in terms of NIM, CIR and ROA. HSBC outranks both UOB and OCBC in terms of average net income per SME. UOB offers different digital solutions for various SME segments (start-up, growth, mature stage) while deploying 40 dedicated full-time tech implementation specialists across the region. Its Finlab SME Leadership Academy helps both start-ups and SMEs grow their businesses by matching SMEs with technology solution providers to suit their needs (pre-funding/debt stage etc.). HSBC’s SME business architecture leans towards the corporate side organizationally within the bank and the financial profile of its clients is also larger compared to the other banks under consideration. HSBC’s Sprint account for start-ups has been well received in 2019 and the bank grew its SME accounts by more than 25,000 new accounts (or 50% YoY growth).