The lifeblood of a successful economy is its ability to allow credit to flow to where it is needed at the right risk level.For SMEs this is not happening efficiency.Since the 2007/2008 crisis, SMEs access to credit has weakened and lenders SME portfolios have suffered losses. Existing risk assessment systems have reinforced the problem. Scoring systems typically use data reflecting businesses financial performance 15--18m ago. Cash flow crises, one of the major causes of SME defaults, can originate in just 2--3 months, causing financially stable considered businesses to close. That is, balance sheet information, by definition, cannot capture the credit event. This lack of updated information hinders credit stability driver identification. Payment Services Directive is a positive step in this respect allowing: a)real-time credit information access and b)third-party access to granular banking data.Credit Data Research (CDR), leveraging on PSD2 and Open APIs, will build real-time credit risk assessment applications, for its users and subscribers; for the French, Italian, Spanish and German markets. CDR's solution, making use of the Open Banking technology, is market disruptive and will enable creating a level playing field for SME credit scoring across Europe before expanding for the rest of Europe. Details have been provided below alongside references contained in the Appendix for Question 7\.

Currently SMEs are facing a lack of transparency on why banks and other financial organisations reject or approve an application for funding. Credit scoring are unique to each lender and no information can be shared to the SME on why their application for loan has been approved or not. The project aims to develop an IT system that will be able to provide an accurate, compliant report and credit rating to SMEs. This will respond to a current need for an assessment of the credit worthiness of SMEs and help them better access to funding from various lenders. This report will be unique as it will not only include an analysis of the financial data from the financial statements of the company, but also an analysis of the company's behavioural data (information recorded in the Credit Registry Agency regarding on borrowing patterns of companies)ext (press F1 for assistance). The project aims to develop a preproduction prototype which will be validated and demonstrated for 5 countries for an initial phase: France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and UK.