Fintech Credit Risk Assessment for SMEs: Evidence from China

Promoting credit services to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) has been a perennial challenge for policy makers globally due to high information costs. Recent fintech developments may be able to mitigate this problem. By leveraging big data or digital footprints on existing platforms, some bi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Huang, Yiping
Other Authors: Zhang, Longmei, Li, Zhenhua, Qiu, Han
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 2020
Series:IMF Working Papers
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 03951nmm a2200793 u 4500
001 EB002081451
003 EBX01000000000000001221541
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 220928 ||| eng
020 |a 9781513557618 
100 1 |a Huang, Yiping 
245 0 0 |a Fintech Credit Risk Assessment for SMEs: Evidence from China  |c Yiping Huang, Longmei Zhang, Zhenhua Li, Han Qiu, Tao Sun, Xue Wang 
260 |a Washington, D.C.  |b International Monetary Fund  |c 2020 
300 |a 42 pages 
651 4 |a China, People's Republic of 
653 |a Credit 
653 |a Payment Systems 
653 |a Banks 
653 |a Finance 
653 |a Financial services industry; Technological innovations 
653 |a Industries: Financial Services 
653 |a Regimes 
653 |a Financial Forecasting and Simulation 
653 |a Fintech 
653 |a Mortgages 
653 |a Money 
653 |a Standards 
653 |a Financial risk management 
653 |a Credit risk 
653 |a Capital and Ownership Structure 
653 |a Goodwill 
653 |a Bank credit 
653 |a Financial Risk and Risk Management 
653 |a Financing Policy 
653 |a Depository Institutions 
653 |a Machine learning 
653 |a Government and the Monetary System 
653 |a Technological Change: Choices and Consequences 
653 |a Institutional Investors 
653 |a Pension Funds 
653 |a Technology 
653 |a Monetary economics 
653 |a Financial institutions 
653 |a General Financial Markets: Government Policy and Regulation 
653 |a Financial Instruments 
653 |a Value of Firms 
653 |a Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit: General 
653 |a Micro Finance Institutions 
653 |a Intelligence (AI) & Semantics 
653 |a Diffusion Processes 
653 |a Non-bank Financial Institutions 
653 |a Loans 
653 |a Banks and Banking 
653 |a Computer applications in industry & technology 
653 |a Monetary Systems 
653 |a Financial regulation and supervision 
653 |a Money and Monetary Policy 
653 |a Financial services law & regulation 
700 1 |a Zhang, Longmei 
700 1 |a Li, Zhenhua 
700 1 |a Qiu, Han 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b IMF  |a International Monetary Fund 
490 0 |a IMF Working Papers 
028 5 0 |a 10.5089/9781513557618.001 
856 4 0 |u https://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2020/193/001.2020.issue-193-en.xml?cid=49742-com-dsp-marc  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a Promoting credit services to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) has been a perennial challenge for policy makers globally due to high information costs. Recent fintech developments may be able to mitigate this problem. By leveraging big data or digital footprints on existing platforms, some big technology (BigTech) firms have extended short-term loans to millions of small firms. By analyzing 1.8 million loan transactions of a leading Chinese online bank, this paper compares the fintech approach to assessing credit risk using big data and machine learning models with the bank approach using traditional financial data and scorecard models. The study shows that the fintech approach yields better prediction of loan defaults during normal times and periods of large exogenous shocks, reflecting information and modeling advantages. BigTech’s proprietary information can complement or, where necessary, substitute credit history in risk assessment, allowing unbanked firms to borrow. Furthermore, the fintech approach benefits SMEs that are smaller and in smaller cities, hence complementing the role of banks by reaching underserved customers. With more effective and balanced policy support, BigTech lenders could help promote financial inclusion worldwide