Digital loans open new doors for SMEs

Digital loans open new doors for SMEs

Experts warn that while digital lending channels hold great promise, coordinated reforms in legal frameworks, infrastructure and technology adoption are crucial to unlocking their full potential.

Workers pack edible bird's nest products at the Yến Sào Xứ Thanh Production and Trading Company in Thanh Hóa Province. VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Anh

As Việt Nam’s financial sector accelerates its digital transformation, online unsecured lending is becoming a vital tool in bridging long-standing capital access gaps for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Experts warn that while digital lending channels hold great promise, coordinated reforms in legal frameworks, infrastructure and technology adoption are crucial to unlocking their full potential.

According to the latest data from FiinGroup, SMEs make up a staggering 95 per cent of all enterprises nationwide, equivalent to approximately 867,000 businesses as of the end of July 2025. Of these, over 90 per cent are classified as small or micro-sized, with charter capital under VNĐ10 billion (US$380,000).

Characterised by insufficient capital, a small workforce and weak competitiveness, SMEs’ contribution to national revenue is modest—under 20 per cent—and their share in import-export turnover remains below 10 per cent.

Access to finance continues to be a pressing issue for this sector. FiinGroup reports that only about 9.3 per cent of SMEs are able to access bank loans, in stark contrast to 56.1 per cent of large enterprises. This significant disparity highlights the structural challenges facing SMEs and hindering their ability to survive and expand.

Nguyễn Hoàng Long, who owns the green technology startup TreOTek, said that small and micro-sized enterprises currently faced significant hurdles in accessing bank loans, primarily due to strict collateral requirements.

To overcome these barriers, shareholders and members often must mortgage their personal assets, thereby increasing their financial responsibility beyond their initial investment in the enterprise, Long told saigontimes.vn.

According to Trần Nam Thắng, sales director of the Hà Nội-based Tex Vietnam Technology Company, technology enterprises face unique challenges due to their lack of tangible assets. Their main assets are people and brainpower.

For large projects, enterprises are often required to demonstrate tangible resources, making it difficult for smaller firms to secure such contracts.

As a result, they often had to collaborate with larger organisations, Thắng told the online newspaper.

Facing these challenges, the firms expressed hope that lending institutions such as banks would adopt more flexible and tailored solutions to support small- and micro-sized enterprises. They also called for innovation in the credit market, advocating for more open approaches that create unsecured loan opportunities not only for SMEs but also for individual borrowers.

Digital integration

According to Nguyễn Thị Vân Anh, deputy director of Advance Technology Transfer and Consultancy Company in Hà Nội, a major concern for businesses is the lack of support for unsecured loans from banks, which often forces them to prove their financial capacity.

She recommended that banks consider approving loans based on audited financial statements and the track records of businesses, thereby creating more opportunities for SMEs with strong financial histories.

Workers pack edible bird's nest products at the Yến Sào Xứ Thanh Production and Trading Company in Thanh Hóa Province. VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Anh

Concerns over capital access for enterprises have been acknowledged by the Government. In response, the Communist Party of Việt Nam issued a resolution in May 2025 on private economic development (also known as Resolution 68) urging commercial banks to expand unsecured lending to businesses by using cash flow management as a key criterion for credit assessment.

Specifically, banks can determine loan limits based on business performance reports, value-added tax declarations and electronic invoices. Additionally, the use of API-based data connections between the banking system, accounting software providers, tax authorities and the Credit Information Center (CIC) enables real-time data verification and creditworthiness assessments. This digital integration significantly streamlines the lending process, allowing banks to reduce personnel costs for the appraisal stage by nearly half.

Following the implementation of the new policy, several major banks including BIDV, Techcombank and MB Bank have partnered with MISA Co to launch a fast and flexible loan solution through the MISA Lending platform. Under this model, SMEs using MISA’s accounting software can initiate a loan request directly within the system.

The platform automatically aggregates data from the past three years of financial statements, cash flow records and electronic invoices, then evaluates the applicant using an AI-powered scoring model. Notably, the entire loan application and approval process is fully automated and conducted entirely on the digital platform.

'Significant milestone'

Speaking to saigontimes.vn, financial director at MISA Nguyễn Thị Ngoan, said the solution would enable complete digitalisation of the lending process, eliminating the need for paper documents and allowing for 100 per cent online implementation.

Loan disbursement could occur within 24 hours—far faster than the traditional process, which often takes several weeks. Notably, collateral would no longer be required, as credit evaluation would be based entirely on digital data.

As a result, the loan approval success rate had reached 30 per cent, a figure ten times higher than that of conventional lending methods, Ngoan said.

However, to ensure both safety and efficiency, online credit lending must rely on a diverse range of data, including static information such as credit history, CIC reports, tax filings and financial obligations, as well as dynamic data like daily cash flow, electronic invoices and accounting and human resources records.

She added that the combination of static and dynamic data would enable banks to transparently score credit, improve the accuracy of evaluations and minimise the risk of bad debt.

Echoing this opinion, Đặng Ngọc Đức, head of the Institute of Financial Technology at Đại Nam University, said online unsecured lending represented a significant milestone in the digitalisation of finance, enhancing financial accessibility for many borrowers.

However, he cautioned that for this lending model to develop sustainably, comprehensive adjustments would be needed across legal frameworks, State management, infrastructure investment and technology application in lending activities.

Đức called for prioritising the completion of a robust legal corridor and promoting a controlled testing mechanism. He also stressed the need to supplement regulations concerning electronic contracts, customer authentication, data storage, dispute resolution, and personal information protection.

From a business perspective, Long from TreOTek said that beyond developing credit lending models, banks should also assist businesses in creating methodical and feasible business plans. These plans would serve as a critical foundation for credit score assessments and lending decisions, reducing the need for businesses to mortgage personal assets.

When banks remain uncertain about the capacity of businesses, why not collaborate with relevant agencies to jointly evaluate these enterprises? This approach could help banks minimise risks when extending capital, Long suggested. 

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