Why digital sales data makes it easier for businesses to borrow

In short: The Vietnam International Financial Centre in Ho Chi Minh City (VIFC-HCMC) is studying a mechanism that would let e-commerce platforms lend to the businesses and household businesses selling on them, based on sales data and cash flow instead of collateral. The model is still being studied, but it shows how lenders want to assess small businesses: through cash flow they can verify. A business whose revenue matches across its e-invoices, bank statements and accounting books will have an application that is easier to assess, whether it borrows from a bank or through a new channel.

How VIFC-HCMC wants to bring funding to small and mid-sized businesses

VIFC-HCMC wants to open more sources of funding for small and mid-sized businesses, including one where e-commerce platforms lend to sellers based on their cash flow. According to Dân trí on 10 November 2026, Associate Professor Nguyễn Hữu Huân, Vice Chair of the VIFC-HCMC Executive Agency, said the centre is not only there to raise capital for large companies. Small and mid-sized businesses make up 98% of all businesses in Vietnam, yet they struggle to get funding, even in the domestic market.

The approach under study is a regulatory sandbox, a controlled trial in which e-commerce platforms would be allowed to lend to businesses and household businesses (small family-run businesses registered as households rather than companies) that sell on them. Mr Huân explained that banks usually ask for collateral and find it very hard to lend on cash flow alone. Platforms, by contrast, hold full data on their sellers' sales and customers, so they can judge a seller's ability to repay from its transaction cash flow. According to information he received from some platforms, bad debt in countries that already use this model is below 1%, far lower than in the banking system, even though the loans are entirely unsecured.

The model has no rollout date. Mr Huân said it needs a suitable legal framework and sandbox, and the centre is still working to persuade platforms to take part. Building such a mechanism is fairly difficult and takes a long time. VIFC-HCMC itself is only at the start: it has just admitted its first 10 members and is waiting for licences for 9 banks that plan to set up there.

Why digital sales data makes it easier to borrow

When a business has no collateral, a lender has only cash flow to judge whether it can repay, and cash flow only counts if it can be verified. An e-commerce platform can verify it straight away, because orders, returns and the money paid into each seller's account all sit in its own system. A bank has none of that data, so it relies on the documents the business submits.

With submitted documents, a credit officer usually compares revenue across several sources: financial statements, tax returns, invoices issued and account statements. If the revenue in the report says one thing and the money in the bank account says another, the application is likely to be queried or rated lower. A shop that sells well but takes cash, keeps a handwritten ledger and does not invoice every sale looks smaller on paper than it really is.

The table below lists the data sources lenders often look at and the mistakes that tend to weaken an application.

Data source	What the lender can read from it	Common mistakes
E-invoices issued	Declared revenue, who the main customers are, whether the business depends on a few of them	Invoices issued in bulk, issued late or for less than actual revenue
Business bank statements	How much money actually came in, and whether it is steady or erratic from month to month	Customers paying into the personal account of the owner or an employee
Books in accounting software	Profit and loss, costs, existing loans	Books written up only at year end for tax, not updated during the year
Accounts receivable	Whether customers pay on time and how much money is tied up	Tracked across several Excel files, with no clear view of what is overdue
Orders on marketplaces, the website and in store	Monthly sales, return rate, growth	One file per channel, and the totals do not match the books

Lenders need these sources to agree with each other. Digitization helps because data is recorded the moment a transaction happens, leaves a trail and can be exported in a few minutes when a lender asks. For that to work, the software has to be used every day, not just installed for show, a point our article on digitization vs digital transformation covers in more detail.

Clean data still does not guarantee a loan. Lenders also look at profit and loss, existing debt, the industry and their own policies. Good data helps an application get assessed faster and judged on how the business really trades.

What to prepare now

You do not need to wait for VIFC-HCMC's new mechanism, because the same data already makes a bank loan application stronger today. These five steps can be done within a few months:

1. Take payments into the business account. Stop letting customers pay into personal accounts. Revenue that passes through the company account is the easiest proof of cash flow to check.
2. Issue e-invoices on time and for the right amount. When invoices match the money received, you have fewer differences to explain when revenue is checked against other records.
3. Keep the books in accounting software and close them every month. Do not leave it all to year end, so that you always have a profit and loss statement and a cash flow report for the latest month. Our article on AI in finance and accounting has a section on automatic bank reconciliation that makes this less work.
4. Track receivables by age. Know which amounts are coming due and which are 30, 60 or 90 days overdue. An aged receivables report shows whether the revenue you book actually turns into cash.
5. Bring orders from every sales channel into one place. If you sell on marketplaces, on your website and in a shop, keep one combined sales table that matches your accounting books. If platform lending is trialled, your sales history on the platform is exactly what the platform will use to assess you.

Frequently asked questions

Can businesses already borrow through e-commerce platforms under the VIFC-HCMC mechanism? No. According to Dân trí on 10 November 2026, it is only an approach under study and still needs a legal framework and a sandbox of its own. The centre is still persuading platforms to join and has not announced when it will start.

If our sales data is good, will we get an unsecured loan? Nothing guarantees that. Good data helps lenders judge your ability to repay accurately, but the decision to lend, the credit limit and any collateral requirement still depend on each lender's policy.

Do household businesses need to prepare in the same way? They should, at a simpler level. The mechanism under study also covers household businesses that sell on platforms, so taking payments through a bank account, keeping order history and recording revenue regularly all help.

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HAT Solutions helps businesses connect their sales data, invoices, bank statements and receivables, so the figures match every month instead of being tidied up only when a loan application is due. Want to know whether your current data is clear enough to show a lender? Contact us for advice. How to build a data foundation from scratch is covered in Data-driven business: how to start managing by data.