A large majority of governments around the world face huge challenges, both technically and operationally, in implementing new products and processing requests.
Not our words, but those of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Their survey on government support programmes for businesses discovered that SME financing for specific segments has become a priority as the economic base for many developed economies is widening. However, this expansion goes hand in hand with ESG metrics and other criteria to determine which entity gets supported and with what amount of money.
Even before the pandemic, many support schemes were woefully undercooked and overengineered. As an example, a pot of €6.5b in Germany dedicated to digitalising the education system remained largely unused; two years after its inception, less than a billion Euros had been spent, €1.4b were confirmed for projects but still being processed, and two thirds of the budget remained completely untapped.
We firmly believe that the fintech community can and must play a crucial role in this government overhaul: Not only are we in touch with all the latest regulations, but we also already enjoy fruitful cooperation with SMEs and players in the financial services industry, from credit unions to banks!