United Overseas Bank has been named the World’s Best Bank for SMEs at the Euromoney Global Awards for Excellence 2021 based on its deep regional connectivity, expertise and continued support of SMEs to enable post-pandemic recovery and growth. The latest win follows from other key SME awards the bank has won including the Best SME Bank in Singapore and Asia Pacific at The Asian Banker’s Excellence in Retail Financial Services International Awards in June this year.
Recognising the increasing importance of digitalisation in building a sustainable business, a need accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, UOB has enabled more SMEs to use digital payments. For example, UOB extended PayNow Corporate contactless payments, which provide convenience to both consumers and merchants, to SMEs. The number of transactions made through PayNow Corporate among UOB’s SME customers grew more than 50 times in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same period in 2019.
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UOB also offers a full suite of solutions to help SMEs digitalise their operations and remain relevant in the digital economy. UOB BizSmart is an integrated suite of cloud-based business solutions that boost productivity. SMEs that have taken up UOB BizSmart solutions recorded revenue growth of between 15% to 30% compared with those that have not taken up the solution between April 2020 and March 2021. As at March 2021, more than 10,000 SMEs in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have benefitted from UOB BizSmart since its launch in 2016.
UOB also leveraged its strong digital capabilities, such as its data analytics-powered credit underwriting engine, to assess and to respond quickly to SMEs’ financial needs, especially during the pandemic.
Louise Bowman, Editor of Euromoney, said, “UOB has radically changed its underwriting engine by applying new alternative data metrics to its risk management analytics. And UOB does not just provide innovative digital services to help these small companies financially; it has introduced an SME solution with bundled accounting, payroll and other HR functionalities to enable SMEs to manage the logistical side of operations.”
