YES BANK Taps Tax Return Data For SMB Loan Underwriting

India’s YES BANK is tapping into tax data to expand small business (SMB) lending.

Reports in MENAFN on Friday (April 13) said the company plans to offer loans to micro, small and medium-sized businesses based on their Goods and Services Tax (GST) returns.

Dubbed YES GST, the product is an overdraft facility that provides small business owners with funding based on their annual turnover and data from tax returns. According to YES BANK Group President and Head of Branch and Retail Banking Rajan Pental, the new solution is part of the financial institution’s (FI) broad efforts to expand access to faster financing for India’s SMBs.

The solution also will not require a deeper analysis of borrowers’ balance sheets or bank statements, reports said, and SMBs don’t have to borrow funds against property mortgages. YES BANK will assess tax data from the last six months, and, if approved, businesses can access funds within a day.

YES BANK has introduced separate measures to extend access to small business loans in the past. In 2016, the FI collaborated with Amazon to link Amazon India sellers to financing and trade services. More recently, last month, YES BANK announced the launch of a Digital Export and Import Payments solution, an addition to YES TRANSACT Smart Trade. The tools offer businesses access to export-import services to enable the sharing of digital information between trading partners, including payment instructions.

The bank noted it would deploy APIs and robotics process automation technologies to facilitate global trade transactions, with a focus on deals with China, the U.S., Singapore, Germany and Hong Kong.

YES BANK launched its accelerator program last year to support B2B FinTech innovation in an array of services, including cash flow management and cross-border payments.