Finance operating system Aspire has partnered with Know Your Customer to facilitate access to its financial products to underserved SMEs across South-East Asia. It is estimated that there are 70 million micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Southeast Asia today that employ over 140 million people and account for 99% of all businesses in the region, as per the press release.

These companies are often in urgent need of financial services such as business accounts, loans, credit cards, and a platform to manage their receivables and payables, says Aspire. Despite this, access to viable financial products remains difficult for many of them due to the challenges of financial institutions looking to verify these companies’ shareholding structures. In these instances, having real-time access to company registries is essential for any FI looking to serve new companies not yet present in conventional KYC databases.

The new partnership will enhance Aspire’s ability to digitise and streamline the crucial phase of corporate onboarding for SMEs, entrepreneurs and corporate clients across the whole region through Know Your Customer’s digital solutions and unmatched coverage of real-time registry connections in APAC and globally. .