Xerox’s Big News, U.S. Bank’s Biz Cards And New Data On SME Finance

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For the first time since the recession, bank lending to SMEs in the U.K. rose. Over in the U.S., there were some mixed findings regarding the state of small business job growth at the start of the year. Plus, Basware and Tradeshift both released their latest financial reports, while Xerox made a major announcement.

The data from these stories — as well as the statistics around use of data analytics technology, cross-border payments and small business credit cards — are all included in our latest B2B Data Digest. Check out our breakdown below.

 

$2.3 billion (£1.6 billion) worth of growth of U.K. small business bank loans. That growth was experienced across four quarters of consecutive growth through early Oct. 2015, marking the first time since the recession that yearly SME lending in the nation is on the upswing. The statistics, released by the British Business Bank, said that traditional banks still account for more than 80 percent of small business lending. But the four leading banks hold 78 percent of that loan volume.

205,000 small business jobs were added to the U.S. economy in January, says payroll processor ADP, a figure that beat out analysts’ expectations by 10,000 jobs. The results of that research, however, contradict conclusions by the CBIZ Small Business Employment Index, which revealed a decline in hiring among small businesses in January. Despite it being a traditionally slow month for hiring, January’s figures mark the worst start to a year since 2010, CBIZ noted.

250 percent more transaction value reached Tradeshift in 2015, compared to 2014, the supplier collaboration and source-to-pay company said in its most recent financial report. The company said the increase can be attributed to partnership, new products to ease the procure-to-pay process and new customers that signed onto the platform in 2015, the company said. 

37 percent of SME supply chain professionals use data analytics. That figure is too low, says business applications service provider Advanced Business Solutions, which initiated the research. According to analysts, 80 percent of executives agree they should be taking greater advantage of analytics technology. Despite the low figure, it still wasn’t as low as the use of analytics by human resources, researchers found — just 17 percent of professionals in this space reported implementing this technology.

26 global currencies are now supported by Saxo Payments’ Banking Circle, the platform that connects financial institutions, companies and other players onto a portal to find a faster, more affordable way to send cross-border payments. The number of supported currencies rose after Saxo announced the addition of six new currencies last week.

5 percent organic revenue growth is expected for Basware, according to the eInvoicing and procure-to-pay company. Basware published data from its FY2015 earnings, marking a 12.3 percent increase in net sales. The figures were published as the firm announced a new strategy for the next few years to focus on its cloud operations, with its growth efforts also expected to yield about $22 million worth of investments for 2016–2018.

3 small business credit cards were added to U.S. Bank’s offerings in a major effort to enhance its SME services. As part of that effort, the bank also announced a collaboration with MasterCard, linking small business customers to the credit card giant’s Business Network. Altogether, the effort means small business owners can access a portal of resources from MasterCard to help run their operations and access tools from U.S. Bank to help manage spend and finance.

2 companies will emerge as a result of the Xerox split, a move that sees the copier and printing firm separating its business services. One side will focus on aiding corporate clients’ migration to automated services and their shift from paper to electronic documents. The other will focus on businesses’ accounting, payroll and other processes, either through outsourcing them or by providing its own automated services. Reports said the split is a result of pressure placed on Xerox by activist investors, namely Carl Icahn.

0.28 percent growth in small business job growth since December, according to analysis from the Paychex | IHS Small Business Jobs Index. The figures suggest 2016 is off to a promising start for small business hiring, with January’s level marking the highest since May of last year, Paychex said. The construction sector saw the most prominent increase in small business job growth, followed by hospitality.