Important Notice: This article is provided for information purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, an offer, or an inducement to engage in investment activity. Greengage & Co. Limited is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide investment services. References to technologies, platforms, or companies are illustrative only.

Small businesses across the UK and Europe are moving away from traditional, paperwork-heavy loans and toward faster, API-driven credit solutions. Thanks to innovations in tokenized lending and e-money infrastructure, SMEs now have the opportunity to access working capital in real time, securely and transparently.

This blog is inspired by Episode 38 of The Gage podcast, featuring Alessio Marinelli, CEO of CREDI, a company specialising in tokenized SME credit pools. CREDI explores how businesses can use receivables and future income via blockchain-based smart contracts to support real-time underwriting, automated settlement.

Greengage has formed a strategic partnership with CREDI to integrate next-generation credit solutions into its financial ecosystem. While Greengage does not directly offer lending services (instead we can introduce businesses to a variety of lending institutions), this partnership allows us to explore innovative ways to bring programmable credit and reusable identity tools into the digital wallet experience. You can read more here: CREDI and Greengage Announce Strategic Partnership.

Underwriting Credit with Real-Time E-Money Data

Modern SME lending platforms now rely on real-time financial data pulled directly from e-money accounts, eliminating the delays and inefficiencies of traditional document-based processes. These accounts reveal dynamic signals like daily cash flow, invoice receipts, and spending patterns, offering a much clearer picture of a business’s financial health than static month-end reports.

This live transaction data can feed into machine learning models that assess creditworthiness instantly. For example, if an SME connects their e-money account, the system can score risk in real time and generate a loan offer in seconds. This shift makes underwriting faster, smarter, and far more adaptable to seasonal cash flow variations.

CREDI’s tokenized lending platform relies on visibility into receivables and business activity, often derived from e-money accounts or integrated financial tools, to score risk and automate loan issuance. Through our partnership, Greengage enables this flow of trusted data, forming the backbone for faster, smarter underwriting.

As Alessio Marinelli noted in Episode 38 of The Gage podcast, combining off-chain financial data with on-chain transparency is a powerful way to build trust and accelerate credit approvals. This is exactly what CREDI specialises in — providing tokenized SME lending solutions that use smart contracts and real-time financial signals to automate underwriting. Through our strategic partnership, Greengage supports this model by facilitating infrastructure, such as e-money accounts and compliance tools, that enables platforms like CREDI to deliver fast, secure, and programmable credit.

Firms are now experimenting using digital credentials – referred to as KYC NFTs to make compliance checks more efficient. These are non-transferable digital credentials designed to verify a user’s identity in a secure and reusable way.

Simplifying Identity Verification with Digital Credentials

One of the biggest inefficiencies in SME lending is the repeated burden of KYC and AML checks, regulatory processes that verify a business’s identity and ensure it isn’t involved in illicit financial activity. Each platform, lender, or service provider requires its own onboarding, creating friction that slows capital flow and drives up costs.

Through the use of KYC NFTs — secure, non-transferable digital credentials — users can help businesses verify their identity just once and then reuse that verification across multiple platforms. Instead of repeating the same KYC and AML checks every time they apply for a service, businesses can store their verified identity in a digital wallet.

In Europe, initiatives like IOTA’s EU Digital Identity Sandbox and Bloom Wallet are testing how these credentials can be stored safely and shared when needed, making the onboarding process faster, more secure, and less repetitive.

The benefits of this approach are clear: businesses can get started faster, avoid repeating the same checks, and keep better control over their personal information. Regulators are beginning to support these innovations, especially as new privacy technologies, like zero-knowledge proofs (a way to confirm something is true without revealing the actual data), make it possible to verify someone’s identity without exposing sensitive details.

Embedding Tokenized Credit Pools Inside Wallets

Where traditional finance requires intermediaries, tokenized lending pools offer programmable access to credit. SME borrowers can now tap into blockchain-based pools that automatically issue loans backed by invoices or future receivables.

Platforms like Untangled Finance, operating in the UK, are already transforming receivables into tokenized debt notes that live on-chain.

In these new lending models, businesses can access credit services directly from their digital wallets. The process is designed to be simple,  much like sending a payment online.

Risk Management & Compliance

Despite its programmability and automation, tokenized lending still faces stringent compliance requirements. Platforms in this space work with trusted loan originators and regulated service providers to manage custody, compliance, and onboarding. These partnerships ensure that even decentralised lending can meet regulatory standards while remaining efficient and transparent.

Monitoring tools are built into smart contracts — self-executing programs on the blockchain that automatically carry out actions when certain conditions are met. For example, if the value of a borrower’s collateral drops or a repayment is missed, the system can automatically begin the recovery process.

As the EU’s MiCA regulation (Markets in Crypto-Assets) and the UK’s FSMA (Financial Services and Markets Act) updates provide clearer rules around things like stablecoins and tokenized financial products, more DeFi platforms are expected to launch sandboxed lending systems. These “sandboxed” credit pools allow platforms to experiment with new financial tools while staying compliant, paving the way for safer, more regulated blockchain lending in 2025 and beyond.

Conclusion & Next Steps

From real-time underwriting to smart liquidity flows, the convergence of tokenized finance and e-money platforms is reshaping SME credit. By embedding programmable credit, reusable identity, and real-time exchanges directly into digital wallets, fintechs are making lending faster, more accessible, and more capital-efficient.

Looking ahead, we will likely see more tools that work across borders, digital IDs that can be used in different systems, and new solutions made specifically for small businesses. The technology is ready so now it is about getting people to trust it and use it at scale.

Want the full story?

Catch the full conversation with Alessio Marinelli, CEO of CREDI, on Episode 38 of The Gage podcast, where he dives deeper into topics like KYC NFTs, tokenized credit pools, and the future of real-time SME lending.