SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Menna has partnered with Equifax UK to add commercial credit data to its AI finance assistant for small businesses, as many UK SMEs report difficulty accessing funding.

The agreement gives Menna users direct access to Equifax credit information within the software. It is intended to show business owners how lenders may assess their applications, presenting that information in plain language and highlighting factors that could affect a borrowing decision before a formal application is made.

The partnership comes at a difficult time for the small business finance market. Figures cited by the companies show the Bank of England has identified a GBP £22 billion funding gap for SMEs, while average loan acceptance rates have fallen below 50%, down from 67% before the pandemic.

Confidence among small firms has also weakened. Public data referenced by the companies shows that only 45% of SMEs felt confident a lender would approve a finance request in the final quarter of 2025, down from a peak of 66% in 2016.

Credit visibility

The integration is intended to help business owners understand the information lenders review when deciding whether to offer credit. That includes late payments, outstanding invoices, cashflow, the age of accounts, and whether company information is up to date.

By surfacing those details earlier, the system is designed to let firms address weaknesses before seeking finance, rather than discovering credit issues only after an application has been rejected.

Small businesses account for 99.8% of the UK business population, but many still struggle to understand how credit assessments are made. The partnership is launching as the UK Government gathers evidence on the barriers smaller firms face when trying to access finance.

Menna is based in the UK and focuses on credit intelligence for smaller companies. Its founders, Dan Mines and Nick Carlton, previously worked on financial products at Admiral Group and built the business around the view that many lending systems are better suited to larger organisations than to small firms.

Equifax, which operates internationally in data and analytics, is supplying the credit data used in the service. In the UK, the group provides information and risk-related products used by lenders and other organisations in decision-making.

The aim is to make the credit review process less opaque for business owners. Instead of relying on a lender’s final verdict to reveal a problem, users can see what is shaping their profile in advance and take action.

Dan Mines, Co-founder of Menna, set out the company’s view of the problem facing smaller firms.

“Small businesses should not have to wait for a loan application to be denied before understanding their creditworthiness. By combining Menna’s Agentic AI-driven insights with trusted Equifax data, we’re helping business owners understand why a bank says no, what is affecting their credit profile, and the practical steps they can take to improve how they are seen by lenders – giving them greater confidence to borrow, plan ahead and grow,” said Mines.

Wider pressure

The launch reflects a broader debate over the availability of finance for SMEs in the UK. Lending to smaller firms has been under pressure for several years, and falling approval rates have raised concerns not only about access to capital but also about whether businesses are being discouraged from applying in the first place.

That has implications beyond individual borrowers. Smaller companies make up the overwhelming majority of the business base, so a sustained drop in borrowing confidence can affect investment, hiring, and day-to-day resilience across the wider economy.

For lenders, more transparent credit information could also mean applicants come forward with a clearer sense of their financial position. The companies argue this could reduce some of the uncertainty surrounding applications, particularly for owners without specialist finance teams.

Matt Jones, VP, Partners at Equifax UK, said the issue had become as much a confidence gap as a data gap.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the UK economy, yet too many still face a confidence shortfall when it comes to seeking funding. Through our partnership with Menna, we want to help change that by democratising access to the financial and credit insights that have traditionally felt out of reach. This is about giving SMEs a clearer roadmap to funding readiness – helping them better understand the factors shaping lender decisions so they can approach borrowing with greater confidence, build resilience, and unlock future sustainable growth,” said Jones.

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

FreedomPay has published research on customer abuse faced by shop and hospitality staff during payment outages, pointing to payment failures as a flashpoint for frontline worker safety.

More than half of UK retail and hospitality managers, 52%, said they had experienced verbal abuse or threatening behaviour from customers when payment systems went down. The study, conducted with Retail Economics, was based on surveys of 2,000 UK consumers and 200 managers.

The findings add a new dimension to concerns about abuse against shop workers in a sector that represents a substantial share of employment in Britain. Retail and hospitality account for about 2.8 million jobs, close to 10% of national employment.

Payment disruption appears to test customers’ patience quickly. The survey found frustration starts to rise within eight to 13 minutes of a payment failure, while the average outage lasts 79 minutes.

That gap between tolerance and downtime appears to shape consumer behaviour at the till. One in five consumers said they walked out immediately during their most recent payment outage, leaving staff to deal with both the operational problem and rising tension in stores and venues.

Peak pressure

The data suggests the problem is becoming more frequent and harder to manage. Three in four businesses reported that payment disruptions had increased over the past year.

Outages are also increasingly hitting during the busiest trading windows. Nearly three quarters, 72%, now occur during peak periods, up from 60% a year earlier, with lunchtime the most common time for systems to fail.

These conditions can intensify pressure on staff because queues are longer and customers have fewer alternatives when card payments stop working. In a market that has steadily shifted away from cash, a failed terminal can leave both consumers and employees with limited options.

The findings also point to weaknesses in contingency planning across the sector. Fewer than half of the UK businesses surveyed said they had a secondary internet connection to keep payment systems running during connectivity problems.

Only 40% offered offline card processing. Without those measures, staff cannot complete sales through another route and instead must explain delays, calm customers and absorb complaints.

Wider concern

The issue comes against a broader backdrop of concern over violence and intimidation directed at retail workers. Trade union data cited in the research puts abuse against retail workers at 1,600 incidents a day, the second highest level on record.

That wider pattern has often been linked to theft, refusal of service and enforcement of age restrictions. The study suggests technology failures should also be counted among the triggers that can expose frontline workers to hostility.

For businesses, the implications stretch beyond lost sales during an outage. Repeated payment failures can undermine customer trust, disrupt peak-hour trading and increase strain on managers and staff already working in customer-facing roles under tight operational pressure.

The report also highlights how changing payment habits have altered the balance of risk in stores and hospitality venues. As fewer people carry cash, the ability to continue trading during a card outage depends more heavily on network resilience and backup systems than in the past.

This creates a direct link between technical infrastructure and worker welfare. When systems fail and no fallback exists, employees at the counter become the visible face of a problem they cannot fix.

Lunchtime, identified as the most common time for failures, places outages at the centre of the day’s heaviest footfall. For restaurants, cafes and convenience outlets in particular, that timing can turn a technical breakdown into a confrontation within minutes.

FreedomPay’s findings show that payment resilience is not only about maintaining transactions, but also about protecting employees during service disruption. The average outage lasts 79 minutes, far beyond the eight-to-13-minute window in which customer patience starts to break down.

It comes after years of avoiding moving online with the closest service being its Click and Collect option which launched in 2022.

Customers can currently shop for some products online and ask for them to be delivered to their local Primark store, but the lack of online delivery options means they can’t receive their orders at their doors.

The retailer recently launched an app which allows UK customers to order items through the Click and Collect service.

Primark “knows it needs to go online”, according to sources speaking to The Times.

Newsquest has approached Primark for comment.

In April this year, Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF) said it is to spin off its Primark retail business, breaking up one of the UK’s largest consumer businesses.

It came as Primark highlighted weaker trading in April as pressure from the Middle East conflict weighed on consumer sentiment.

UK High Street shops that no longer exist

Shares in ABF dropped lower in early trading as a result.

The company, which runs large food, sugar and agriculture operations, said it expects to separate Primark by the end of 2027.

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The move comes after a significant review into the company structure in a bid to improve returns for shareholders.

Both companies are set to be listed on the FTSE 100 following the split.

Wittington Investments, the vehicle of Associated British Foods’ founding Weston family, is to keep majority stakes in both businesses.

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