Xero

Xero is a New Zealand cloud accounting platform, founded in Wellington in 2006 and listed on the ASX, used by small businesses and their accountants in over 180 countries. For banks, Xero matters less as accounting software than as a source of verified, near-real-time SME financial data.

API bank feeds push daily transaction data from a business’s bank accounts into Xero, and the business can in turn authorise its lender to read back invoices, revenue, expenses, payables and cash flow. That replaces stale annual accounts and manual document packs with a live financial picture, enabling faster and better-calibrated credit decisions for borrowers with little or no collateral. DBS Bank has built directly on this: an API-driven bank feed launched in Singapore in 2017 and later Hong Kong, extended in 2022 so SMEs can share Xero records with DBS and receive hyper-personalised, collateral-free working capital limits.

1. Cloud accounting platform acting as the system of record for SME revenue, expenses, cash flow and tax data.

2. API bank feeds move daily bank transaction data into Xero; SMEs can consent to share that data back with their lender.

3. DBS partnership announced March 2017 — first-of-its-kind API bank feed integration in Asia, later extended to Hong Kong.

4. 2022 DBS-Xero extension: SMEs authorise Xero to share transaction records with DBS for collateral-free credit terms and working capital limits.

5. DBS reported approving over 14,000 collateral-free SME loans totalling more than SGD 6.4 billion in Singapore since 2020.

6. Over 90% of those loans went to micro and small enterprises.