Sepo seeking to set up big data firm
TheState Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo) plans to form a fintech firm to sell big data analytics to specialised financial institutions (SFI), its chief says.
Sepo is studying the business model for the company, as it must be self-sufficient, said director-general Ekniti Nitithanprapas.
SFIs will supply the data and have it analysed using big data technology, he said. Customers of state-owned banks will be able access the information through the platform for free, though SFIs must pay for it, Mr Ekniti said.
Sepo expects to propose a prototype for pooling information from SFIs to the Finance Ministry by May before the proposal is forwarded to the cabinet for approval, he said.
The information will also be linked to the National Credit Bureau.
The information platform for SFIs is aimed at allowing people and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access financial sources from stateowned banks at lower cost, he said.
The platform format will be similar to airline comparison platforms, aimed at helping consumers make decisions.
On the financial institutions’ side, they can pinpoint loan applicants’ locations and learn which specialised financial institutions lend to SME operators, whether their applicants have been refused, what kind of assistance they want and if their loans have soured to assess the risk of tentative borrowers, Mr Ekniti said.
With the information, micro SMEs will have better access to funding sources, he said.
After information is pooled among specialised financial institutions and analysed, small SME operators are expected to have fewer worries in seeking loans, as they will be able to fill out the required information on the platform, which in turn will show which specialised financial institutions want to offer them loans.
In the next stage, the big data can evaluate loans and analyse more detailed information to shed light on borrowers’ behaviour and set the appropriate training courses to improve their business potential and competitiveness, Mr Ekniti said.