CRIF and Swoop Funding join forces to unlock credit to SMEs and provide tailored lending products

CRIF Realtime, leader in the FinTech sector and provider of Credit Passport®, the Business Credit Score for SMEs, has launched a new partnership with Swoop Funding, a business funding and savings platform enabling businesses to discover the right funding solutions.

CRIF Realtime has always been committed to promoting financial inclusion by developing open banking-enabled products that deliver benefits to the UK’s 5.9 million SMEs, and this partnership with Swoop will further help the SME community to access funding and ultimately grow. Thanks to a real-time credit score, SMEs will be able to gain insights into their businesses’ financial performance and viability, and how they are viewed by lenders. By exploiting CRIF’s unique Credit Passport Open Banking business credit scoring, Swoop’s team of experts will be able to match businesses with best-fit funding and savings products, unlocking credit for those who previously would not have had access to finance due to having a lower credit score, and educating their customers so they can play an active role in positioning themselves to secure the best products.

As we are in a post-pandemic recovery phase, companies will need to adjust to new ways of running their businesses to develop new business relationships, establish new supply chain partnerships and forge new deals. Credit Passport® is designed to bridge the gap between the financial industry and business owners. Powered by Open Banking, it provides an instant, powerful and clear view of a company’s credit quality and will give Swoop’s SME owners a real insight into their own business credit score and how it influences access to funding.

Unlike credit checks and failed loan applications, Credit Passport® does not leave a footprint on the credit profile and is therefore an essential first step for any business hoping to secure the best possible deal for much-needed financing.

Glen Keller, Chief Product Officer at CRIF Realtime, says: "We designed Credit Passport® to remove friction in the lending decisioning process and help SMEs get the right funding for them, when they need it, as well as to help educate businesses so they can build the most financially healthy and resilient companies. CRIF’s partnership with Swoop puts us at the heart of the UK’s SMEs with useful information at a time when they need it the most and will really make a difference to the market.”

Andrea Reynolds, Founder and CEO at Swoop says: “The Swoop State of Business survey 2021 revealed that 90 percent of small business owners don’t know their credit score. This partnership with Credit Passport enables us to support our customers with immediate insight into their own credit score and how it influences the funding they can access”.