Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Whatever form Brexit takes, it’s going to make life more complicated for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). But when placed in the context of a recession caused by a continuing global pandemic, it makes the route ahead incredibly uncertain – especially for those businesses trading overseas. Open Banking provides clues to a way forward for SMEs, but some major opportunities have been missed thus far. With a unique understanding of Open Banking, Currensea is providing SMEs with simplicity and transparency over their international transactions and helping them find the clearest route through 2021.
SMEs in 2020
In many ways, SMEs are the heart of the UK economy; in 2019, there were 5.9 million SMEs in the country, providing employment to 16.6 million people and seeing an estimated turnover of £2.2 trillion.
Up to 4.72 million of these SMEs trade internationally and a quarter of them have had to slow or halt overseas trading due to the restrictions of the pandemic. In fact, SME exports have dropped by around 10 per cent – this alone has cost the UK up to £20 billion.
But the pandemic is not the only complicating factor for SMEs; Brexit has been hanging