scholarshipDigital Identity Platform has revealed that outdated and inefficient business verification systems are causing serious problems for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK.

Small and medium-sized UK businesses are already facing challenges from inflation, rising taxes and cost of living crises, but according to Report By Umazi, titled ID breaks, growth breaks: UK verification barriers, This is just the beginning. The challenges posed by paper-based processes are time-consuming and can cost a lot of resources. Therefore, they are working hard to grow and operate effectively.

The UK government focused on the growth of SMEs and is now a newly launched industrial strategy, and the ability to ride opportunities will be hampered by an outdated verification process. Cindy Van NickCEO and Founder scholarship.

“We’ve talked to business owners who had to submit the same documents repeatedly, just to get through basic onboarding. Some are just waiting for weeks just to open a commercial bank account. Others’ rejection is not rejected because of poor performance, but because they don’t have long enough time to meet outdated paper trawling requirements. It’s not only frustrating — not only is it frustrating, but our inner looks can inspire our economy.”

Limit growth

According to 35% of respondents, some of the most critical issues that hinder development are identifying duplicate verification requirements and endless paperwork. Ninety percent say they have to resubmit the same documents multiple times during registration or funding applications. In some worst-case scenarios, the same form and credentials are required up to ten times, creating weeks (sometimes months) before the business can even start trading.

“This type of delay is not only a traditional tape festival, but a growth trap,” explains Van Niekerk. “They stagnated innovation before they even had the opportunity to build momentum, preventing investment and exhaust entrepreneurs.”

Although these inefficient time wastes valuable time, their greatest destructive effect is limiting commercial financing. The report found that 30% of SMEs do not have access to the funds they need to grow or maintain operations. Half of those who were rejected were told the reason was due to lack of transaction history or insufficient documentation despite the frequent provision of extensive paperwork.

“This is a ridiculous real-life SME face,” Van Niekerk continued. “They deny there is an opportunity to grow because they haven’t. It’s a Catch-22 based on paper and manual processes and is hampering some of the most innovative, job-creating companies in the country.”

Time of change

Although the UK government continues to touting its so-called digital transformation agenda, SMEs remain trapped in a system built on paperwork and repetition, highlighting the huge contradiction between policy commitments and actual progress.

Umazi believes that a secure, reusable digital business identity can revolutionize small and medium-sized businesses to verify themselves, remove duplication, enable instant identity verification and greatly reduce the risk of fraud. Businesses will be able to “verify once, share many” – lifting them out of the current maze of bureaucracy and duplicate documents.

Van Niekerk concluded: “We already have the tools to solve this problem; what is lacking is urgency and leadership. Until we replace paper-based systems with digital trust infrastructure, we will continue to stifle the businesses we rely on to create jobs, provide services and power our communities.”