FinTech Financing Platforms and Bank Lending to SMEs in Malaysia: Complements or Substitutes

Nur'Asyiqin Ramdhan; Rohanizan Md Lazan; Norsaliza Abu Bakar

doi:10.22610/imbr.v18i3(I).4864

Author

Dr. Nur'Asyiqin Ramdhan
- Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam Campus, Malaysia
- Malaysia
Rohanizan Md Lazan
- Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Johor Campus, Malaysia
- Malaysia
Norsaliza Abu Bakar
- Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam Campus, Malaysia
- Malaysia

Abstract

This study examines the complementarities or substitutability between financial technology (FinTech) financing platforms and bank financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. The study uses a six-variable structural vector autoregression (SVAR) framework, which includes the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR), Industrial Production Index (IPI), Consumer Price Index (CPI), peer-to-peer (P2P) financing, equity crowdfunding (ECF) capital raised, and aggregate outstanding SME bank loans, with monthly observations from 2017 to 2026. The SVAR results are complemented by structural impulse response functions (IRFs) with 95% bootstrap confidence intervals, forecast error variance decomposition (FEVD), diagnostic tests, stability assessment, and alternative lag specifications. The results show that P2P and ECF shocks generate small dynamic responses in SME bank lending and their 95% bootstrap confidence intervals generally include zero. An OPR shock produces a positive point response in SME bank lending, which is statistically distinguishable from zero only over part of the response horizon, while the P2P response is statistically distinguishable from zero only at an early horizon. FEVD results indicate that P2P and ECF shocks account for a growing share of the forecast-error variance of SME bank loans. Overall, the aggregate evidence does not provide robust support for a definitive complementarity, substitution, or fallback credit-valve mechanism.

Keywords

References

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Ramdhan, N., Md Lazan, R., & Abu Bakar, N. (2026). FinTech Financing Platforms and Bank Lending to SMEs in Malaysia: Complements or Substitutes. Information Management and Business Review, 18(3(I), 222-238. https://doi.org/10.22610/imbr.v18i3(I).4864

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FinTech Financing Platforms and Bank Lending to SMEs in Malaysia: Complements or Substitutes

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