No, CreditSME is not a bank or a lender. CreditSME provides a platform to quickly assess the credit profile of your business and match the business up to the most suitable lender. This assessment also helps to streamline the lenders approval process and therefore helps give your business get funded quicker and with a higher likelihood of a loan approval.     

The CreditSME Borrower Score is a rating assigned to your business based on a large number of financial and operating attributes of the business. This score can be used as a proxy for how lenders will view your business when assessing a business loan application.

The CreditSME Borrower Score is very different from a credit score assigned by credit bureaus that is based on publicly available information such as past insolvencies, court judgements and the number of loan enquiries. This information is also referenced by CreditSME in generating a Borrower Score but more importantly, CreditSME also draws on a wide range of additional company and industry information such as the most recent financial statements for the business.This additional information is essential in forming an accurate view on the credit profile of a business and will be reviewed by lenders when assessing a business loan application. 

CreditSME has partnered with a wide range of lenders and platforms to best ensure the broadest possible coverage for small and medium sized businesses. These lenders include the major banks, regional banks, peer-to-peer platforms, invoice financiers and online non-bank lenders. All lending partners have been selected based on their focus on and commitment to the SME market, product offering and customer service levels and after gaining a strong understanding of the loan products offered by each of these lenders.

CreditSME is able to arrange a wide range of loans for businesses in any sector including building / construction services, building products, media and advertising, manufacturing, healthcare services, retail, wholesale, professional services, recruitment and labour hire.    

The time taken for a lender to finalise a loan following acceptance of a proposal will vary depending on the circumstance. Some lenders may make the funds available in the same day whilst others will take longer and will be influenced by factors such as the size of the loan, use of funds and nature of any security (if applicable). The major banks and regional banks will typically take between two and four weeks to process a loan application whilst the online lenders may fund within a few days.

As part of the CreditSME Report, customers will be advised of the expected timeframe for loan approval with the selected lender and what information will be required to process the loan application.  

The emergence of new lending alternatives is great for small and medium sized businesses as it gives them more options in sourcing finance. The relative benefits of a loan from a non-traditional financier will vary from company to company depending on a range of factors including their credit profile and funding requirements. To generalize, the traditional banks will take longer to process a loan application and require more detailed information on your company in their assessment of a loan application though this is countered by them typically providing loans for a longer term and at better pricing than the newer non-bank lenders.

CreditSME is able to quickly and efficiently help you to understand the different financing alternatives available and how they best fit with your business.  

A copy of the company’s most recent financial statements and the completion of a 10 point questionnaire is all that is required to process the credit rating.

The number of lenders CreditSME will approach on behalf of its customers will vary depending on the situation. More than one lender will be approached if a level of competitive tension is expected to deliver a better result for the customer. CreditSME has a strong understanding of the credit approval processes and criteria of all of its lender partners and will develop a strategy for the number of lenders to approach for each situation. 

CreditSME is privately owned and independent of any financial services organization. CreditSME partners with a large range of lenders to best ensure that our customers have access to the most suitable lenders and products that are available in the market

There is no universal definition for what constitutes a small and medium sized business. The Australian Bureau of Statistics classifies small and medium sized businesses as those with 199 employees or less though in other regions this can be as high as 500 employees. In the EU, SME’s are defined as companies with up to 250 employees and up to around $75 million (A$ equivalent).