Small Ticket Financing 2.0:
with SmaTiX, AKA is lifting the buyer credit to a digital level
In one year only from launch to go-live: SmaTiX, the online portal for small ticket ECA financings, is modernising the buyer credit and helps boosting the SMEs
In recent years, there has been a lack of tangible financing offers for so-called small tickets. As a result, a lot of exporters have been reluctant to mention the idea of export financing to their clients. AKA has closed this gap since 2018. Intuitive, fast and digital: SmaTiX (Small Ticket Express) enables registered exporters to process their financing requests simply online, for transactions with a contract value from EUR or USD 1 million. Furthermore, in February 2020, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG (OeKB) has been added as an eligible ECA to SmaTiX as part of the Europeanisation of the portal. This enables now also exporters in Austria to benefit from SmaTiX.
Not only can the financing request itself be called a fast procedure, but also the overall development of this digital solution: within only one year, AKA has been pushing its own online portal from the pilot phase to go-live.
A quick look back on how it started: After having been authorised by its Supervisory Board to develop a functional solution for small ticket export financings, AKA has been working closely with its shareholder banks to provide the portal solution. The annual event Trade Finance Dialogue 2018 hosted by AKA, was themed “Launching SmaTiX“. In autumn 2018, twenty representatives of German export companies were invited to attend the exclusive live-demo of the new portal. At first, the portal was running in a so-called pilot phase, when selected exporters were working jointly with AKA on the optimization of all functions of the portal. As early as December 2019, SmaTiX was already going live. Registered users as well as interested newcomers can access the digital application form directly via www.smatix.de. This clearly demonstrates AKA's ability to develop an idea into a fully functional solution in the shortest possible time and by involving partners as well as customers directly in the process.
What are the advantages of this digital solution?
With SmaTiX, AKA has lifted the traditional buyer credit from a complex financing solution with heavy loan documentation to the next, modern level: with a highly standardised digital application form, a real-time financing indication and a lean loan agreement. Thanks to the API between AKA's SmaTiX and Euler Hermes’ Click & Cover, the application data can be easily exchanged between the two forms. And as this API is bi-directional, it also works the other way round, when the exporter starts with the application to Euler Hermes and afterwards transmits the data to AKA.
Who can use SmaTiX?
This offer has been available from the start to exporters in Germany, and since February 2020 also in Austria, who want to sell their investment goods to clients abroad and have these delivery contracts financed via an ECA-covered buyer credit.
SmaTiX currently offers a comprehensive range of countries in the OECD categories 0-6. These are mostly mirroring the Click & Cover list from Euler Hermes; and for a dozen pre-approved countries, even a real-time indication may be obtained if certain other criteria are fulfilled. All other financing requests will be handled by the SmaTiX team individually.
Why is AKA your perfect match?
As a highly specialised financing institution with more than 65 years of export finance experience, AKA is combining know-how and administration competence with the necessary digital expertise.
The on-boarding process for new exporters at AKA is easy and fast. They can simply contact one of the AKA shareholder banks, which includes directly or indirectly any of the German commercial banks. Embedded in the strong network of its shareholder banks, the complete process at AKA lies in one hand – from credit enquiry through to disbursement of the loan. This process has now become simple and intuitive – the financing offer remains reliable.
What are the next steps?
For the next phase, we are already planning to expand SmaTiX by making it available also for other European Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). Furthermore, since February 2020, AKA has been offering direct access to the portal also for its shareholder banks. This will be particularly beneficial for those exporters who have only little or no experience with ECA financings, as they can rely on the support from their trusted relationship manager at the respective house bank.
Are you curious now?
The following link takes you directly to our SmaTiX team members: Your contact
The German Engineering Federation VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V.) has published an article about AKA’s digitization initiative in January: Read more
Last but not least, this is the direct way to the SmaTiX portal: www.smatix.de