Tools to Power Small Business Lending
From Moody's 2017 CSR Report
Information and education are the keys to unlocking credit, which is essential to helping small businesses achieve success. At Moody’s, we’re creating greater economic opportunities for small businesses through tools and analytics that make financial information more transparent and actionable.
MARQ and CashFlowTool.com
In 2017, we expanded the Moody's Analytics' MARQ portal to make it easier for businesses to share information electronically with lenders and for lenders to access insightful analytics to make better credit decisions, faster. The MARQ portal gathers critical information from the borrower and generates a MARQ credit score and supporting analysis. These tools help speed and improve the decision-making process so that financial institutions can get critical funding in their customers’ hands more quickly. The MARQ score is also provided through CashFlowTool.com, an easy to-use web app created by our partner Finagraph. CashFlowTool.com helps small business owners and their advisors monitor and manage the cash flow of the business and understand its credit position. By giving small businesses a clear view of their financial health, CashFlowTool.com empowers them to access capital when they need it and puts them in a position to grow.
Additional tools
In the past year, we also enhanced the integration and functionality of our loan origination products —Lending Cloud and CreditLens — to help lenders efficiently and profitably meet the needs of small businesses that might otherwise be considered too difficult to serve.
Moody’s Analytics’ Emerging Business Unit was instrumental in identifying opportunities and innovations that supported lenders in 2017. One case that stands out is a strategic investment in CompStak, a provider of commercial real estate lease information.
As insights and analytics from CompStak’s commercial lease data are incorporated into Moody’s Analytics products, lenders will have a more complete picture to assess small businesses. Imagine a catering company that wants to move into a warehouse district but needs a loan to do so. The business owners may know all the reasons that neighborhood makes sense. But the bank may not, or it might be operating on outdated assumptions about the neighborhood. Using CompStak’s nontraditional data, a bank can confirm whether making the loan is a smart move.
Financial inclusion
By providing a more holistic view to banks and empowering entrepreneurs, we seed the conditions for economic growth and create opportunities for responsible lending that can revitalize underdeveloped neighborhoods and underserved communities. We see how greater access to credit can deliver the economic benefits that stem from creating more jobs and higher wages. It’s why we’re more committed than ever to supporting an inclusive financial system that works for all.
