Today the government has designated three Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs), including Equifax, to receive SME credit information from designated banks and provide equal access to this information to all finance providers.
 

Nic Beishon, Head of Commercial, Equifax UK & Ireland, comment

“SMEs are a vital part of the UK economy making up 99.9% of the five million private sector businesses in the UK.  Stimulating competition in SME lending through the sharing of SME financial data is key to improving the cost and quality of services offered. Lenders will be able to make faster and more accurate lending decisions with the increased insight available, improving their service to SMEs while also improving risk management.
 

“Currently many SMEs automatically turn to their bank for a loan rather than shopping around. One of the key aims of the legislation is to enable the alternative lending market, for example peer to peer lenders, crowd funding platforms, and challenger banks to have improved access to SME data in order to better service this sector.
 

“We are working closely with HM Treasury to progress the plans and are developing exciting new solutions to help financial providers get the most value for the newly available data.”