Following a distinguished 27-year career at Mastercard, where he most recently served as Senior Vice President of Global Small and Medium Enterprises, Jay Singer now advises various fintechs and financial institutions, including Uome. As employee number three in Mastercard’s data and services business, which today represents around 40% of the company’s global revenue, he brings deep expertise in the payments ecosystem. Additionally, he has served on numerous advisory boards including the SME Finance Forum, a G20-founded organisation managed by the IFC, focusing on helping SMEs gain access to credit and operate more effectively.

The Untapped Potential of SME Banking

The SME banking landscape has undergone fundamental changes over the past decade. “SMEs have been a really underserved segment from a financial services ecosystem perspective,” Jay explains. “Banks and financial institutions often focused heavily on consumer and enterprise businesses, while the SME segment was often squeezed.”

The challenge lies in the unique position of SMEs in the financial ecosystem. “If you really think about it, an SME business owner is a consumer first, and that business is sort of a part of how they earn their keep,” Jay notes. “But a business is a little bit different than an enterprise. Enterprises have multiple layers of management and structure significant portions of revenue. A bank could sit there and say ‘I will develop solutions for that enterprise because I have a greater opportunity to earn a more significant return.’ Whereas, an SME is smaller by nature, generally highly customised yet highly fragmented, requiring solutions that better meet their needs. Because of this, the ability to drive significant return for an SME is challenged, leaving them often underserved”

This gap represents a massive untapped opportunity. “Globally, there’s 500 plus million SMEs, but only about 130 to 150 million of them are actually part of the digital and financial ecosystem,” Jay points out. The importance of this segment is substantial, representing “two thirds of global workforce and ~50% of global GDP in many markets around the world.”

This underserved market has catalysed significant changes in service delivery. Over the last decade, the rise of SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms and neo banks has transformed the landscape. These new players have specifically targeted the SME segment, recognizing that this vast market lacks the solutions they need. This creates tremendous opportunity for both software providers and digital banks to step in and serve this market.

The Integration of Financial Services

While the rise of digital solutions has created more options for SMEs, it has also led to a fragmented landscape. “When we look at SaaS software, the average SME now is buying upwards of seven SaaS software packages to address their needs,” Jay observes. “They’re being inundated with all the software, which they don’t fully understand how to optimise, and the software doesn’t necessarily integrate and share data to help the SME save time and gain the desired efficiencies.”

The solution, Jay believes, lies in integrated platforms. “The distribution and provider of tools to SMEs has changed significantly. It’s not only the bank anymore; the bank of the future for an SME is evolving. It won’t be the traditional brick and mortar.” He sees embedded finance as key to this transformation: “To effectively manage embedded finance, it’s not just about enabling payments; it’s about providing the tools and services that SMEs need around those payments. This includes invoicing, reporting, customer communication, conversational commerce, and the ability to cross-sell other products and services digitally in a fully integrated manner.”

This vision of integration aligns with Jay’s advisory role at Uome. “Uome is essentially what I call a card-in-a-box solution. The idea around this is that Uome offers the ability for a provider to offer SMEs a platform as a service, enabling them to accept payments, make payments, draft invoices, have customer communication, and cross-sell services. It becomes a digital engagement tool.” He adds, “I’ve been looking at building and creating these types of solutions for the last decade, but the possibility of creating a solution like Uome has only recently emerged. Uome meets the needs of a strong cross-segment of SMEs, which is why I’m serving as an advisor. I believe in their mission, the concept of platform as a service, and I’m confident in the team’s ability to execute this vision.”

The Evolution of Traditional Banking

As the financial services landscape evolves towards integrated solutions, traditional banks must adapt. “Banks are very numbers-oriented; they focus on reducing expenses, and typically, they’re not product-oriented machines,” Jay explains. “However, in recent years with fintechs, SaaS software, neobanks, and other competitive sets, banks have been forced to think much more about their users and the solutions they bring to market.”

While many banks initially look to develop solutions in-house, they face significant challenges with legacy systems and compliance requirements. The path forward, according to Jay, lies in collaboration rather than competition. “Part of what I’ve been doing over my career is helping banks understand that and bringing them solutions from partners who can help them address SME needs in a dynamic way.” He warns that “if banks don’t innovate, they will lose to these emerging platforms because they’re not able to keep up with the technology and innovation required to meet the needs of SMEs.”

Looking ahead, Jay sees artificial intelligence as the next frontier in transforming banking services: “The next focus is obviously around AI and how to bring data and information into a meaningful customer experience to help SMEs manage their business more effectively, saving time and energy so they can focus on their products, services and their passions rather than back-office operations.”

Global Market Opportunities and Financial Inclusion

Jay’s global experience offers unique insights into market opportunities worldwide. “In a digital cloud-based environment, expanding into other markets is easier than ever,” he notes, “but there are key considerations: regulation, privacy laws, data management, and the role of SMEs in the economy.”

His passion lies particularly in financial inclusion. Through his work with the SME Finance Forum, Jay focuses on “bringing SMEs in all parts of the world, particularly in developing markets, into the formal ecosystem. We aim to transform those 130 to 150 million digitally-connected SMEs into 500 million formal SMEs.”

Emerging markets present significant opportunities, particularly in regions like Nigeria and India, where “there are huge numbers of growing SMEs, and their governments are starting to pay attention to innovation.” However, Jay emphasises the importance of a dual-market approach. While making inroads into developing markets remains a key focus, developed markets continue to offer substantial opportunities despite high competition.

Looking Ahead

The future of SME banking lies in creating integrated, accessible solutions that address multiple business needs while remaining user-friendly and efficient. This integration of services, combined with AI capabilities and improved user experience, will be crucial in serving the next generation of SMEs.

As an advisor to both traditional banks and emerging fintechs like Uome, Jay’s focus remains on practical innovation that can transform SME banking from its current fragmented state into a more efficient, accessible ecosystem. The opportunity is clear: with the right solutions and partnerships, the financial services industry can better serve this crucial yet historically underserved market.