The banking technology landscape is shifting again. 10x Banking has announced a strategic partnership with ezbob. This collaboration aims to accelerate SME lending launches for banks globally. The move targets a significant digital experience gap in the UK financial sector.
SMEs form the backbone of the UK economy. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, they accounted for 99.2% of the total business population at the start of 2025. Yet, SME lending remains a persistent challenge. Incumbent banks have digitalized retail journeys, including automated personal loans and current accounts. However, SME lending is materially more complex.
It is also huge, with Mordor Intelligence estimating that the SME lending market stands at around US$13.34 trillion in 2026 and will rise to US$16.71 trillion by 2031 at a CAGR of 4.61%.
Despite that figure, in the UK there are multiple barriers. Research by the British Business Bank highlighted several barriers. The top three were:
- Lack of awareness of finance options available
- Access to supply of finance
- Cost of Finance
Even if a small business applies for a loan, it is often hard to obtain. The British Business Bank found that 30% of small businesses that apply for loans from high street banks get rejected. Furthermore, SMEs employing 10 people or fewer face an even higher rejection rate of 40-45%. It is these barriers that 10x Banking aims to lower with this new partnership.
Closing the Digital Gap in SME Finance
Attempts to close this gap have stalled. Systems built on workflow tools often fail. Legacy cores move processes through internal steps. They do not create connected customer journeys. These systems become costly to operate over time. The new partnership addresses these specific failures.
ezbob provides an end-to-end lending solution. It orchestrates onboarding and application processes. It handles credit decisioning and AI agents. 10x Banking provides the modular core. It offers ledger capabilities for product definition. This combination maintains an accurate financial record.
The integration is open and flexible. Specialist components connect without forcing a closed suite. Shared components can be reused easily. Banks can add further lending products efficiently. This avoids building a new silo each time. The result is a faster route to market.
Technology and Speed Advantages
This partnership promises significant speed improvements. Banks can launch SME products in weeks. This is a drastic reduction from months. The approach significantly reduces go-to-market risk. It also lowers the time-to-value ratio. This is critical for competitive banks today.
What the release does not quantify is the time and effort that the integrated solution will provide to the financial institution. Though this is likely to vary. ezbob mitigates SME lending risk by deploying advanced AI and machine learning (AIML) models via its Core Lending Platform to improve probability of default (PD) estimations, streamline approvals, and enable data-driven risk measurement.
ezbob brings substantial experience to the table. Lending products on its platform have launched quickly. Some have gone live in just six weeks. This speed enables 90%+ of applicants to be approved in under five minutes. According to Better Business Finance, loans typically take from a day to several months. The platform automates 94% of approvals.
This efficiency is driven by AI-first methods and reusable components further reduce time-to-market. Banks can launch subsequent products even faster. The partnership will launch to the UK market, but the intent is to roll this out globally once proven. It will also focus on SME lending initially, though the partners have not ruled out extending this to other sectors.
Leadership Vision and Industry Context
Okan Ozaltin, Chief Product & Technology Officer at 10x Banking, emphasized the problem. He stated: “Banks are too often asked to choose between a broad suite that is difficult to adapt and a collection of point solutions that never quite connect. Neither gets a lender to market quickly.
“Bringing our core and ledger together with a specialist origination platform gives them a faster, lower-risk route to market, and the flexibility to keep evolving it afterwards. SME lending is where customers can get the most value, which is why we are starting there.”
Yaron Shoshani, Chief Technology Officer at ezbob, shared his perspective. He said: “We built ezbob to digitise the lending journey itself, rather than automate an internal process on top of systems that were never designed for it.
“Pairing that with a tier-one bank-grade core means a lender can launch a complete SME product, automate decisions where policy allows, and reuse the same components to add further lending products instead of building a new silo each time.”
This context aligns with broader industry trends. There is increasing pressure for banks to modernize core systems, with legacy infrastructure hindering innovation and customer satisfaction. The demand for modular, API-first architectures is growing. Banks need flexibility to adapt to changing regulations. They also need to meet customer expectations for speed.
Enterprise Times: What Does This Mean
This announcement signals a major shift in banking infrastructure strategy. For vendors like 10x Banking and ezbob, it validates the modular approach. It shows that specialization combined with robust cores wins. Partners will likely seek similar integrations. Customers benefit from reduced implementation times. Competitors must accelerate their own modernization efforts.
10x is increasingly taking this modular approach through partnerships as it looks to expand its core capability to other areas of finance. In October, 10x strengthened its platform, adding a new partnership with Tungsten Automation for embedded payments. It will be interesting to see what other gaps it fills through partnerships and how it develops its own platform into 2027, having received £40 million in funding earlier this year.
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