Bucharest, May 16, 2023 – Omnicredit, the first microfinancing, scoring, and factoring fintech platform, streamlines the financing process and integrates an account query service for new applications. Using Smart Accounts, the first open banking service in Romania authorized by the National Bank of Romania and developed by Smart Fintech, Omnicredit will be able to query the history of banking transactions, reducing the waiting time for granting financing to small entrepreneurs.
Through this solution, the transmission of banking information required in the financing process is done through safe and fast automation, thanks to technology and legal regulations. The process automation will optimize the time needed for the crediting decision, which is currently one hour. When completing the financing request, the clients will be redirected to their bank’s platform, where they can authorize the transfer of bank statements directly to the company. This way, applicants are sure that the data they submitted is up to date, correct, and complete, providing all the necessary information for a proper assessment of the application.
”We live in a dynamic, fast-paced era where we are constantly trying to spend our time more efficiently in everything we do, both for ourselves and our businesses. We want to provide our customers with fast financing solutions that meet their needs. Thus, the automation of manual processes, with no added value, is at the top of our list of priorities, especially in a financing process where data transmission must occur easily, quickly, and safely for each applicant. We consider the integration of the Smart Accounts solution a big step in our digitalization strategy, and we will only continue to streamline our operations even more, ” declares Elisa Rusu, CEO of Omnicredit.
The Smart Accounts service is fully integrated into the application flow of all Omnicredit products, and the financing applicant follows a guided and unfragmented process. Account querying using the service is only done with the user’s consent. The security of the service is ensured both by the banks through the safety of their online banking platforms and by the data query and reading service, Smart Accounts.
”Through the cutting-edge technology used, Smart Accounts makes it easier for Omnicredit to quickly and securely receive the bank transaction history provided by the customer’s banks and only with their consent. Until now, an entrepreneur that applied for financing went through a series of additional steps to obtain a bank statement and submit it to Omnicredit. With Smart Accounts, the entrepreneur eliminates these steps and explicitly asks his bank, through his agreement initiated right from the financing platform, to transmit the transaction history directly to Omnicredit. Through the partnership with the Omnicredit team, we continue our mission to develop digitalized interaction with banking data in any context. This will gradually become the only way of use we will know as we leave behind the manual handling of banking transactions through files downloaded from banks’ platforms”, says Alice Anghelea, Revenue Growth, Smart Fintech.
The Smart Accounts service is possible thanks to the Payments Service Directive 2, which allows the banks and their customers to work with third-party technology providers authorized by the National Bank of Romania. Smart Fintech is the first local provider in this category, facilitating bank customers’ access to their own banking data quickly, efficiently, and securely.
Omnicredit, established in 2019, is the first microfinancing platform in Romania that provides factoring, discounting, and micro-financing services. In 2022, the company granted over 28 million euros worth of financing to Romanian companies.
Elisa Rusu owns 15% of Omnicredit shares, and 85% are owned by the investment fund Reconstruction Capital II LTD, listed on the AIM section of the London Stock Exchange and controlled by businessman Ion Florescu.
Smart Fintech is a Romania start-up created as an innovation lab in 2019, set to deliver innovative open banking solutions that emerge from two words: Finance and Technology. It is a self-sustained start-up co-founded by Mihaela Georgescu, Ana Maria Georgescu, Alexandru Cociu, and Andrei Dumitru. They worked together for many years on different information technology projects, and all share the enthusiasm for the innovative playground started by Open Banking. Their ambition is to create value-added services in Romania based on the PSD2 directive and help develop the Romanian market so that not only EU TPPs or fintech in partnership with banks are the leading players.