Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. Nearly all businesses within the United States are considered small businesses.[1] But traditional methods of assessing financial health make it difficult for some owners to show their creditworthiness — and leave potential lenders with increased risk. Thus, small businesses often struggle to access credit –the thing they need most to thrive.
Mastercard’s Small Business Credit Analytics (SBCA) transforms how lenders evaluate small businesses by delivering near real-time sales and benchmarking insights sourced from the Mastercard network. Now integrated into the Mastercard Open Finance platform, customers can combine unique network insights from SBCA with banking, transaction, and cash flow data to create a holistic view of business performance. This integration empowers financial institutions and fintechs to make faster, smarter credit decisions—fueling growth for small businesses and strengthening the connected financial ecosystem.
By drawing on data that’s been permissioned by the business owner, the service offers a more comprehensive and insightful view of a business’s health, performance trends and cash position.
"Innovation in lending starts with better data. By combining Mastercard’s network intelligence with financial insights through Open Finance, we are enabling lenders to see the true potential of small businesses—not just their past performance,” said Rob Pacifico, SVP, Product Management, Open Finance. “This approach helps providers deliver more inclusive, personalized credit solutions that drive growth and create lasting impact for business owners.”
Streamlining and easing underwriting means lenders can now quickly and accurately validate data via secure connections. This not only accelerates the process but also allows lenders to consider such metrics as growth trajectories and seasonal trends, giving them greater confidence when extending credit and supporting business expansion.
Creating a more complete data picture also has the potential to advance financial inclusion, especially for underbanked entrepreneurs. It will allow lenders to more holistically assess creditworthiness and evaluate risk, leveling the playing field to give more micro and small businesses a better chance at accessing credit.
Whether it’s related to such parts of the life cycle as onboarding, underwriting or risk and fraud management, these solutions ensure small business service providers get the information they need at the right moment. This additional data comes in part from adding two new APIs to the merchant service provider toolkit: Retail Sales Analytics and Retail Sales Benchmarks. These APIs complement Mastercard’s other Open Finance analytics such as Cashflow Analytics for Business and Payment Risk Insights, giving providers the ability to more easily evaluate metrics such as a small business owner’s day-to-day cash flows, balances, and revenue trends.
Through these tools, small business owners can utilize their own data to tell the story of their success and secure the capital and services they need to grow. At the same time, merchant service providers or issuers can mitigate their risk and focus on building stronger relationships with their customers. “It is a win-win for merchant service providers, lenders, and their merchant and small business clients: providers gain greater insight and trust in their customers, while business owners can leverage their data to access financing that reflects their actual performance and risk rather than financing based on stale, inaccurate or unclear signals about their business,” according to Scott Lichtenthal, SVP Advanced Analytics.
Learn more about Mastercard Open Finance small business solutions, Mastercard Credit Intelligence, or request a demo here.
Mastercard Open Finance solutions are provided by Finicity, a Mastercard company.
