Financial institutions looking to go digital have never had it easier. Evolve Credit’s no-code solution is helping banks large and small address a global issue in financing.

The lending gap is widening–and it’s a global problem. The UN reports a $4 trillion investment gap for supporting Sustainable Development Goals across the world. European small-to-medium enterprises are struggling to access capital, with Germany alone seeing a €2 trillion SME financing gap that’s not expected to go away until 2040. Global trade, rocked by the pandemic, now sees a financing gap to the tune of $3.4 trillion.

At home here in the United States, everyday people, not just businesses, are reliant on financing systems that are not always present and available. Expenses are rising, over 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and more people are leaning on credit cards and financing options to stay afloat than ever before.

When we look at these woes at home and abroad, it’s clear that we lack the infrastructure to provide adequate financial services to those who need it. We live in a digital world–and both individuals and SMEs need access to credit and capital that’s accessible, instantaneous, and secure online. 

We have the big institutions, like the JP Morgans and Wells Fargo who can throw billions at online banking solutions, but they are only part of the picture in our national financing framework. Many Americans rely on the thousands of small regional and community banks and credit unions–and many of these institutions have struggled to offer reliable and intuitive online solutions.

That’s where CEO Akan Nelson and CTO Daniel Osineye, the Co-Founders of Evolve Credit, come in. Their SaaS program, Configure, is a suite of no-code tools that democratize the creation of digital financial services. By turning to Evolve Credit to help them go digital, financial services providers can custom-fit their online offerings to the communities they serve.

“There’s technology today that can allow even the lowest-income people in the most isolated parts of the US to access a banking service and open a bank account,” Nelson says, “even though it might not be profitable for a financial institution to open a physical branch in their geography. But the underlying technology to make that happen isn’t necessarily readily available, or it is available, and it’s too expensive.”

There’s much to unpack here, but let’s start by looking at Nelson’s first point. The US may boast one of the world’s most robust economies, but there are still over 7 million American households that are “unbanked” and lack access to a financial institution. 

It’s a phenomenon so prevalent that we even have a term for it: banking deserts. In the state of Mississippi–which is home to the highest percentage of unbanked Americans–there are even entire towns, such as Itta Bena, that lack a single bank or credit union.

“Evolve Credit’s goal is to get us to a point where we have a universally accessible digital financial system,” Nelson says, “as quickly as possible. It has to be digital because that’s the only way it scales. It has to be universal because that’s the only way it’s inclusive.”

Inclusivity has long been an issue in the US financial system. The issues we see today, like in Mississippi, are in many ways remnants of a century-old civil rights issue. The wounds of segregation and redlining remain fresh. As we mobilize to finally remedy a lack of financial access that disproportionately impacts the Black community, the emphasis is on digital solutions.

By adopting a digital element to their services, even the smallest of lenders can expand their reach, all without the costs of building a brick-and-mortar establishment in communities that have long been deemed unprofitable. We have the technology to do it, but as Nelson mentions, many of these services are unobtainable for small lenders.

“We want to democratize this banking technology,” Nelson says, “so it’s not just the wealthiest banks or financial institutions that have access to it. With Configure, even the guy who has only two staff members and 100 accounts can use technology that is just as good as what’s being used in JP Morgan.”

The price tag on digital solutions is the first barrier to entry. The big banks spend billions on crafting robust online services–as operating with people’s money requires top-level security and backend infrastructure. Solutions need to be custom fit, not only to the bank’s branding but also to their specific suite of services–often requiring coders to perform expensive contract work in-house.

Evolve Credit solves this by making Configure a no-code solution. When it comes to custom-fitting their SaaS tools to the specific needs of a small lender, bank, or credit union, it’s as easy as filling out a form or customizing a social media page.

In the traditional system, a financial institution would have to hire one company to deliver a core banking system and then turn to third parties in order to build out specific services and offerings. This makes for a logistical nightmare while coordinating the efforts of these distinct teams. When one system fails–it’s hard to identify which provider is the one that’s crashing the system.

With Configure, all the tools a bank would need are coming from one single source. The Evolve Credit’s tools are designed to be modular, so an institution can scale their financial services as they go.

“Imagine a world where every single bank and non-bank financial institution operated like a large bank or fintech,” Akan Nelson says, “where transactions are instantaneous and access to financial services is universal. This is the vision of Evolve Credit.”

In the US and globally, Evolve Credit is mobilizing to close a financing gap that’s been widening for too long. With their intuitive, ready-to-access tools, financial institutions, small and large, are invited to join their mission.

To learn more about how Evolve Credit works, visit their website.