Business lender iwoca expands Open Banking connections

iwoca’s latest connections enables 60 per cent of its customers access to more efficient Open Banking services.

Small business lending platform iwoca has added Barclays and HSBC to its Open Banking connections.

Launched in 2012, iwoca offers loans up to £200,000 to small and micro businesses across UK, Germany and Poland through partner integrations using its Lending and Open Banking application programming interfaces (API).

As a result of the Open Banking partnerships with Barclays and HSBC, iwoca can now access business owners’ transactional history who have accounts with either of the banks. This will improve the speed and efficiency when the business owners apply for a revolving credit facility or long-term loans through iwoca.

Barclays and HSBC are now two of the three banks iwoca has partnered with, having joined forces with Lloyds bank back in November. iwoca was the first business lender to connect with any of the UK’s nine largest high street banks through Open Banking. The lender plans to connect with the remaining six banks as deals with Santander and NatWest are close to completion.

The expansion of iwoca’s connections will enable over 60 per cent of the lender’s customers to incorporate the Open Banking services when applying for finance.

Mark Chidley, Independent SME representative to the Open Banking Implementation Entity, said in a statement: “Open Banking has a powerful role to play in bringing together members of its ecosystem to provide small businesses with the ability to manage their businesses in a more productive, efficient and profitable way – helping to mitigate persistent challenges such as late payments, low productivity and inefficient access to credit.”