SMEs draw a blank on defining ‘fintech’
The workings and services of fintech start-ups are an anomaly to the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), 89 per cent of which have never heard of the financial technology portmanteau, according to ServiceSeeking.com.
A recent study by the site indicated that despite Australia’s leading position in fintech innovation and regulation across the globe, the term which derived from ‘financial technology’ lacks awareness in the broader business community.
The survey said the low brand awareness around the fintech industry was alarming for the start-up space and the broader alternative finance sector, which should have impacted SMEs as a target focus for new products like automated payment processing and digital tool offerings.
“Fintech has a long way to go to achieve widespread adoption and the banks seem fairly well entrenched across the spectrum of financial products,” said ServiceSeeking.com chief executive, Jeremy Levitt.
“It seems really that there’s nothing less relevant to SMEs than fintech…an overwhelming majority of these SMEs have never even heard of the industry.”
The same survey found 79 per cent of SMEs had never looked beyond Westpac, ANZ, National Australia Bank (NAB) and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) for financing their business.
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