Throughout Southeast Asia, SMEs make up over 97% of all companies and drive nearly all of employment.
But entry to credit score stays a problem, significantly for smaller and non-collateral debtors.
For lenders, the chance is big — however provided that they’ll scale operations shortly, handle threat successfully, and ship providers effectively.
Esquire Financing Inc., one of many Philippines’ largest non-bank monetary establishments, confronted precisely this problem.
Serving over 27,000 entrepreneurs with versatile, non-collateral enterprise loans, Esquire had the market demand however was held again by operational bottlenecks, sluggish mortgage approvals, and getting older, siloed expertise.
Selecting a Accomplice for Scalable Development
The management crew realised they wanted greater than incremental upgrades. They wanted a contemporary, cloud-native platform constructed for pace, agility, and integration.
After evaluating a number of suppliers, Esquire selected Oradian’s Instafin — a cloud-native core banking system designed for fast-growing monetary establishments throughout rising markets.
“Oradian demonstrated expertise, native know-how and a dominant observe report within the Philippines, making them a pure companion,”
mentioned Rajan Uttamchandani, CEO of Esquire Financing.
From Months to Hours – The Outcomes
The transformation was delivered in simply three months — in comparison with the 12–24 months frequent within the trade — because of Oradian’s embedded regional crew and streamlined implementation course of.
With Instafin, Esquire has been capable of:
• Lower mortgage approvals from days to hours
• Triple its mortgage portfolio in underneath 2.5 years
• Go totally paperless, enhancing compliance and lowering prices
• Achieve real-time dashboards for quicker, data-driven selections
• Put together for seamless fintech integrations, comparable to digital wallets and fee platforms
“With expertise you’re capable of scale quicker with out having to roll out extra branches, so I feel the funding in expertise isn’t a cost-saving technique, however a scale-maximisation technique,”
mentioned Stephen Williams, Esquire’s CTO & CTTO.
Classes for Lenders Throughout the Area

Esquire’s story displays a regional actuality: whether or not in Manila, Jakarta, or Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, lenders are underneath strain to serve extra clients with out proportionally growing prices.
Cloud-native core banking platforms are enabling this by combining agility, integration readiness, and operational effectivity.
“The digitalisation journey was actually a strategy to maintain our prices down whereas with the ability to scale our enterprise effectively,” added Uttamchandani.
Antonio Separovic, Co-founder & CEO of Oradian, summarised the partnership:
“Esquire Financing focuses on their enterprise and trusts us with the tech. Through the use of Oradian’s real-time information, integrations, and quicker approvals, they’ve scaled shortly.
Belief, openness, and shared objectives drive our success. Oradian is their tech platform for right this moment and what’s subsequent.”
A Blueprint for Scalable Lending
Esquire’s speedy core banking transformation exhibits that with the proper companion, even large-scale change could be achieved quick and with minimal disruption.
For monetary establishments throughout Southeast Asia — from MFIs to digital banks — the takeaway is obvious: investing in the proper expertise isn’t just about effectivity; it’s about unlocking market management.
Learn the complete case examine right here and see how Oradian’s cloud-native core banking system can speed up your development.
Featured picture: Edited by Fintech Information Singapore, based mostly on picture by thanyakij-12 through Freepik