General info

SMB is a New Zealand-owned fintech company. We use software automation, smart design and exceptional service to restore trust in the lending industry and help responsible customers take control of their finances. We take a new-school approach, rather than the old-school banking approach, to giving credit where credit is deserved. We understand that there’s more to you than just your credit score.

Our personal loans can help fund life’s smallest to biggest moments. Our products are designed to provide customers with fast, online access to competitively priced consumer credit when needed.

Our exceptional service and technology allow financially responsible customers to borrow safely and easily.

Our personal loans help fund life’s smallest to biggest moments. Our products are designed to provide customers with access to competitively priced credit whenever and wherever they need it.

Take a look to see whether you qualify for a loan and and take a look at our loan products here.

We believe there are many financially responsible New Zealanders who are not getting access to credit they deserve.

We are different to most lenders in that we carry out a comprehensive assessment of your financial profile and look beyond your credit score. This means that a lower credit score and/or limited credit history won’t prevent financially responsible applicants from accessing our personal loans. Our exceptional service and technology allow us to provide competitively priced credit in a responsible way so that customers can borrow safely and easily.

To help us in our decision making, we ask you to complete our online application which includes providing us details of your current living situation, your employment information and also your bank statements. This enables us to ascertain a complete view of your financial situation.
Our Lending Specialists complete a data-driven assessment of your full financial profile, which allows us to evaluate your personal situation better than traditional lenders do.

For more information on our application process, click here

SMB offers loans to financially responsible Kiwis.

While your credit history is an important aspect of our credit-assessment process, we also look at your cash flow, debt-to-income ratio, payments-to-income ratio, savings and spending habits.

We ask you to provide up-to-date information in our easy online application form. This and other credit information allows us to evaluate your personal and financial profile.

To see if you are eligible for a loan and whether SMB is a fit for you, view our Do I Qualify page

Some reasons we may not be able to approve an application are:

• You are not currently receiving income

• More information is required to complete the assessment process

• We are unable to verify your application details
  

Under government regulations, you will be required to submit copies of suitable identification so we may successfully verify your identity. In addition to this, we are also required to confirm your current address.

Click here for more information on our identification and address requirements.

We look at a variety of factors when determining your eligibility, including your affordability, your spending habits, credit score and income.

Based on the outcome of our loan assessment, we will let you know if you are eligible for the loan amount you have requested, you can then select a loan amount up to your approved level of finance.

We know your loan is important to you, so we work hard to get it to you quickly. If your loan is approved on a business day, we will make payment to your bank on the same day.

The exact time that funds will become available to you will depend on your bank, it is usually within a few hours of approval. If you haven’t received your funds and you have received a text from us saying your loan has been approved, it can be a good idea to check with your bank to see if there have been any hold ups their end. 

This depends on how much you apply for, how many repayments you select, our assessment of what you can comfortably repay, your application information and your credit history (see How it works for more information).

It’s important to remember that SMB may not be the cheapest credit option and may not be the best option for you, based on your circumstances.

We are committed to a transparent fee structure that makes it easy for you to understand.

Our small print is our big print! SMB is an upfront, no surprises loan company. To make SMB loans easy to use, fair and clear, we always show the total amount repayable upfront.

Our fee structure is transparent – see our loan calculators for more info!

Click here for more information on our interest and fees.

When you are considering how much you would like to borrow, you can see very clearly how payments and total cost on a SMB loan are calculated.

We believe fairness and transparency are values that are fundamental to finance.

Click here for more information on our interest and fees.

• Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR) – can be found on the register. The New Zealand government created FSPR as part of its regime to make the financial services sector more accountable and transparent. The public and regulators can access financial service providers. The system prohibits certain people from providing financial services.

• Financial Dispute Resolution Service (FDRS) – the FDRS is an independent, approved dispute-resolution scheme for settling disputes between people and businesses, and the organisations that provide them with financial services and advice.

• Transport layer security (TLS) – TLS provides secure communications over computer networks. Websites use TLS to secure all communications between their servers and web browsers.

• Privacy – Click here to view our privacy policy.

• Security – Click here to view our security policy.

• Responsible lending code (RLC) – The responsible lending code is a guide for lenders on how to comply with lender responsibility principles, which was developed by the New Zealand Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE). It can be used by lenders to show they complied with the principles and did not act oppressively. 

• Credit Contract and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA) – The main purpose of the CCCFA is to make dealings between consumers and lenders clearer, as well as to protect consumers. The CCCFA provides protection when you take out a personal loan with SMB.

• Payment difficulties – We know a change in your individual circumstances may affect your ability to make repayments, so we provide a range of protections should your financial situation change. We are able to work with our customers experiencing financial difficulties to make their loan repayments more manageable.

• Financial hardship – Click here for more information on our financial hardship policy.

Please contact our lending specialists via email at support@smb.nz if you would like to discuss your options.

We require the last three months worth of bank statements as part of your application so that we can conduct a full affordability assessment. You can provide access to your bank statements via our bank verification service. A link to the bank verification system portal will be provided for you and from there you can login using your online banking credentials. This will provide SMB read-only access to your last three months worth of bank statements.

Click here for our DecisionLogic terms of use.

Click here for our illion terms of use.

Click here for our Credit Sense terms of use.

At SMB we take our commitment to AML/CFT and fraud very seriously. All new customers must go through our strict verification process, present suitable photographic identification and in some cases, supporting non-photo identification, so that we may validate their credentials. For customers holding a New Zealand drivers licence, the licence and version number can be entered at the time of application for us to electronically verify your credentials. For customers holding a New Zealand passport, the passport number, date of issue and date of expiry can be entered at the time of application for us to electronically verify your credentials. You can upload copies of all other forms of identification upon application or email/fax them separately. All forms of identification must meet SMB's specific requirements and be valid at the time of application. We will attempt to validate your current address using our external bureau facility. If we are unable to validate your address in this way, then you must provide suitable documentary evidence of your address, which must be dated no later than six months prior to the date of your application.

Click here for our AML/CFT identification and address requirements.

View our full security policy here.

For every loan application, we will provide a cancel reason that will be sent to you via email.

Common reasons for a cancelled application include:

• Income from your primary job and supplementary income does not support everyday living expenses along with your SMB loan repayments

• Adverse bank-account behaviour, including reversals, transfers, gambling, etc.

• A history of missed or default payments

• Recent bankruptcy, judgements and/or other unpaid defaults

• We are unable to identify you

If you believe there was an error in our assessment of your application, please feel free to reach out to our lending team via phone or email.

Similarly, if you believe there was an error on your credit report that affected our decision, it is important you get this investigated. The information on your credit report impacts your credit rating and whether or not you might be accepted for a loan.

You are welcome to reapply after you have made progress towards improving your financial profile. For more information about what we typically look for when evaluating your application, please refer to the Do I qualify? section of our website.

Please note that under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act, we are required to retain transactional records for a period of at least five years after completion of that transaction. Once your current loan is complete, you can request that we grant you no further loans in the future, however, your details must remain on file for regulatory purposes.

If you wish to cancel your loan application, please contact our lending team on 03 288 2562 during business hours or email support@smb.nz and they can help you cancel your application.