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Corporate Loans
A decline is a decision, not a diagnosis. The useful next step is separating what you know from what you assume.
The themes below are preparation considerations drawn from common practice. They are not a universal lender model, a list of anyone's credit criteria, or a way of predicting an outcome.
The productive response to a decline is not automatically to submit more applications. It is to separate known facts from assumptions and identify what can be clarified, corrected or changed.
The institution may not be satisfied that recent and forecast cash flow can support the proposed payment. Review cash generated after normal operating expenses, existing loans and leases, tax and payroll and supplier commitments, seasonality and customer-payment timing, and the effect of a weaker month.
Do not treat revenue as cash available for repayment.
Build the dated forecast first, including the new facility's full payment schedule: Build a rolling 13-week cash-flow forecast
Possible response: reduce the amount, change the tenure, stage the spending, wait for stronger evidence, or reconsider whether borrowing is appropriate.
Current term loans, overdrafts, hire purchase, guarantees, leases, tax arrangements or supplier arrears all affect the assessment.
Prepare one complete liability schedule. Incomplete information damages credibility and, more importantly, prevents the owner from evaluating the decision accurately.
Possible response: reconcile balances, document repayment dates, and get qualified advice before refinancing or adding more debt.
Accounts, bank statements and the application may describe different versions of the business. Common examples:
Possible response: reconcile the information, correct factual errors and add short evidence-based explanations. Do not conceal an unfavourable month or invent a reason for an unusual transaction.
"General working capital" does not tell the institution how much is needed, when, or what will generate the cash to repay it. Rewrite the request as:
S$[amount] by [date] for [specific expense], supported by [quotation, order, contract or cash-flow calculation], with repayment expected from [identified source].
Possible response: clarify the purpose and resize the amount to the evidence.
A business that depends on one major customer, one project or a short seasonal window has a less predictable repayment path. Concentration is not automatically a reason for decline, but it should be understood.
Possible response: show the history accurately, explain contract status, and test what happens if the major customer is lost or pays late. Do not treat unsigned revenue as committed.
Institutions may consider payment conduct, existing arrears, late payments, defaults and other credit information under their own policies. Information about directors or guarantors may also be relevant, depending on the facility and structure.
Possible response: obtain the relevant records through the proper channels, correct anything factually wrong, and disclose what the institution asks for. Do not assume the reason without evidence.
A long-term loan may not match stock that should convert to cash in a few months. A short facility may mature before equipment becomes productive. An overdraft may not be appropriate for a balance that never clears.
Possible response: remap the cash cycle and compare a different amount, tenure or facility type. Match the structure to the cash need
This one is common enough to be worth stating plainly. A business can meet every published condition Enterprise Singapore sets for a government-supported facility and still be declined by the participating financial institution.
The scheme decides who may be considered. The institution decides who is approved, for how much, and on what terms. They are two separate gates and passing the first says nothing about the second.
Possible response: confirm both sets of requirements, and stop treating scheme eligibility as a signal about your application's strength.
Request whatever decision information the institution is able to provide. It may not disclose the detail behind its assessment, and it is not obliged to.
Record only confirmed issues. "The lender disliked our industry" is speculation unless the institution said so. Acting on a guess usually means fixing the wrong thing.
For each confirmed or suspected weakness, record the evidence, the corrective action, who owns it, the completion date, and what must materially change before another application.
A different institution may reach a different view, and there is nothing wrong with approaching one. But sending the same unresolved request to everyone in turn is not a strategy — it costs time, and each institution will find the same gaps the first one did.
The better sequence is to fix what you can identify, then apply once more with a stronger case. If you are unsure what changed since the last application, that is a sign it is too early.
Pause and obtain professional advice if:
General educational content is not a substitute for accounting, legal, credit or restructuring advice.
Score each area, then convert the result into an action rather than a verdict:
The output should be one of: clarify, obtain evidence, resize, restructure, wait, or seek professional advice.
A good pre-application review is valuable because it finds avoidable ambiguity, not because it predicts an outcome.
Figures verified on 3 August 2026. Scheme parameters, rates and lender requirements change — check the primary source before relying on any figure.
Fundwise is an intermediary, not a lender. This is general information, not individual financial, legal, tax, accounting or credit advice. Financial institutions run their own eligibility and credit assessments and set all terms — we cannot guarantee approval, rate, amount or timing.
Read more about working capital loans, or get in touch to talk through your situation.
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