Singapore SMEs Are "Immune to Uncertainty." What Can We Learn From the Ones Who Adapted Fastest?

OCBC's SME Index has remained in expansion territory for four consecutive quarters. Eric Ong, OCBC's head of enterprise banking, said SMEs have become "immune to uncertainty" after years of volatility - building buffers, diversifying supply chains, and raising their risk management game.

The data backs this up. The index hit 51.6 in Q1 2026, up from 50.8 in Q4 2025. Collections grew 11.8% year-on-year. Payments grew 10.7%. Manufacturing, ICT, and wholesale trade are driving growth despite macroeconomic headwinds.

But resilience isn't just about buffers and supply chains. There's a less visible pattern among the SMEs that adapted fastest to the last two years of disruption.

They digitised early.

Not everything at once. Not a grand transformation project. They started with the foundation - accounting. Moving from spreadsheets to proper accounting software meant reconciliation happened automatically. Cash flow was visible in real time, not at month-end. GST returns pulled directly from transaction records instead of being reconstructed manually.

That foundation changed how they responded to uncertainty. When supply chains disrupted, they could see the cash flow impact immediately. When demand shifted, they could adjust pricing and credit terms with current numbers, not stale ones. When costs rose, they knew exactly where - not at quarter-end, but now.

The SMEs still on manual processes felt the same uncertainty. But their response was slower. Decisions waited for the books to close. Supplier negotiations happened without a clear picture of cash position. GST filing was a fire drill every quarter.

OCBC's Ong said something telling: "The SMEs have adjusted." They have. But the adjustment that matters most isn't visible in the index. It's in the back office - the systems that let a business owner see their numbers, trust their numbers, and act on them without delay.

The next disruption will come. The question is whether your systems will be doing the heavy lifting, or whether you will.

Source: The Business Times, 15 Jul 2026
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/singapore/singapore-smes-increasingly-immune-uncertainty-after-years-volatility-ocbc-executive