Aspire, RegTech Provider Know Your Customer Team to Better Serve SMBs

Finance operating system Aspire and RegTech firm Know Your Customer are partnering to bolster financial services for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Southeast Asia, according to a press release Monday (July 25).

The companies are responding to demand from small businesses who need things like business accounts, loans, credit cards and a platform to manage receivables and payables. It’s often difficult for SMBs in the region to get such things because of the challenges behind financial institution verification.

Aspire offers various financial services like multi-currency accounts and cards, expense management and more, per the release. Additionally, Know Your Customer works on compliance solutions for corporate onboarding.

Per the release, the partnership will boost Aspire’s ability to digitize and streamline onboarding for the new businesses. It will use Know Your Customer’s digital solutions and the way it covers registry connections.

Real-time access to company registries is especially important for financial institutions looking to work with new companies which aren’t present in KYC databases yet, the companies said.

The release noted that there’s around 70 million smaller businesses in Southeast Asia, which account for 99% of all businesses there. Thousands of new businesses are registered every day, and the report said 9% or so of all entities present were incorporated in the past year.

PYMNTS recently wrote that businesses have been struggling to keep up with demand from both clients and consumers for frictionless payments.

See also: SMBs Struggle to Overcome Four Business Payments Frictions

The report showed several pain points which businesses could address to help with customers. For instance, manual invoice review can be managed by clients using a one-card solution that either offers its own or an integrated AP/AR system, streamlining things onto a single dashboard.

There’s also a lack of financing alternatives, with clients allowed to choose a preferred method of payment for every transaction, adding flexibility. The automation can also save time and allow the businesses to scale more easily.

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