Transparency of operations and access to official resources. However, reality shows that many long-term business owners still face difficulties in accessing bank capital just because the "legal age" of the business is still too new.
According to statistics from the Statistics Office, Vietnam currently has more than 5 million business households, contributing about 30% of GDP and creating jobs for tens of millions of workers. Every year, tens of thousands of business households transform their models into businesses, but most of these fall into the group of micro-enterprises with thin capital, incomplete accounting systems and limited collateral - factors that make bank loans a difficult problem.
Removing the "seniority" knot for new businesses
One of the most common barriers for newly established micro-SMEs is the requirement for operating time. In fact, many banks still set the criterion that businesses must operate for 6-12 months to be eligible for credit access, even though business owners have a stable business history before.
To solve this paradox, SeABank has updated the production and business loan package, designed specifically for micro-enterprises and transforming business households. Accordingly, businesses only need to operate for 3 months to be considered for credit, with loan limits and terms built flexibly according to actual needs.
Specifically, with the need to supplement working capital, the credit limit can be maintained up to 36 months, helping businesses proactively import goods, rotate capital and stabilize cash flow. For loans to invest in machinery, equipment or expand factories, the loan term can be extended to 120 months; for loans to buy or receive real estate transfers to serve production and business, the term is up to 300 months, reducing debt repayment pressure in the early stages.
Accompanying the micro-enterprise ecosystem
According to a survey by the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, nearly 60% of businesses face difficulties in accessing bank credit capital, especially in the early stages of model transformation, mainly due to lack of collateral, weak credit history and complex loan applications. Grasping this reality, SeABank builds a separate appraisal process for this customer segment to ensure simple, quick procedures, closely following the actual operations of Small and Medium Enterprises.
The debt repayment method is also designed flexibly, with the option of paying interest monthly or quarterly; principal can be phased in monthly, quarterly, 6-month or late-term, suitable for the business cycle of each industry.
Besides procedures, collateral is also a major bottleneck for new businesses. Accordingly, SeABank expands its collateral portfolio in the SeAPro package, in addition to real estate, savings books and valuable papers, it also accepts transportation vehicles such as passenger cars up to 16 seats, trucks, pickup trucks are common assets in micro-SME business operations.
This approach helps many businesses maximize available resources to access capital in a timely manner, instead of having to postpone production and business plans due to lack of traditional collateral.
According to SeABank representatives, designing "custom-made" credit products for newly established businesses is not only aimed at expanding credit, but also towards building a sustainable SME ecosystem, supporting the private economic sector - an important growth engine of the economy.
In the context that the Government aims to strongly develop the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, flexible and practical financial solutions are expected to contribute to removing capital bottlenecks, helping business owners confidently transform their models and improve competitiveness.
