Commonwealth Bank has re-entered the small business receivables finance market, launching what it calls a “fully digitised working capital solution” that offers credit on unpaid customer invoices.

The bank worked with tech company Waddle, a Xero business that has developed a cash flow finance platform, to gain access to a digital platform that provides a live feed of customer data via cloud accounting software.

The bank is promising that its new product, Stream Working Capital, will provide fast credit decisions, with time from application to funding just 72 hours. The system will be accessible 24/7 and the bank claims it will cut 80 per cent of manual processing out of applications.

The bank is also relying on the technology to minimise fraud, which has been a problem with receivables finance in the past.

CBA executive general manager, business lending, Clare Morgan, said the Waddle system has fraud detection algorithms, which look at such things as the businesses typical cash flow patterns to detect anomalies.

Morgan said the bank has continued to offer cash flow finance in various forms, such as inventory and trade credit, to its bigger business customers but did not have an offering for small business.

“We’ve heard from our customers that they want to be able to hold more inventory and build relationships with more suppliers to mitigate supply disruption,” she said.

“They also face increasing pressure from suppliers wanting to be paid earlier and buyers wanting to extend payment terms. Using invoices to access credit addresses this issue.”

The bank will advance 40 to 80 per cent of the value of invoices, depending on the credit quality of its customers and the quality of the debtor.

The bank is offering the product to “select eligible small business customers” initially, with a full rollout in the next six months.