SME Finance Forum

Complementing Finance with Know-How for Women in Business

Ines Rocha

Mar 08, 2019

At the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), we believe that complex inequalities need wide-ranging responses. This is why in 2014, the EBRD launched an ambitious new approach to support the financial and...

BRAC Bank: SMEs Are Not Just Another Business Opportunity, They Are A Reason for Being

Nadia Afrin

Oct 03, 2018

BRAC Bank was established in 2001 to help grow the vital, yet unbanked SME sector in Bangladesh. The bank’s reason for being is to serve SMEs; with 186 bank branches, 2,500 specialized SME staff and the provision of more than 60 percent of the collateral-free SME loans in Bangladesh, the bank is doing exactly that. The overall lending to SMEs by...

Study Tours: Learning Best SME Finance Practices

Carmen Smith

Sep 19, 2018

Networks such as the SME Finance Forum exist so that direct practitioners can learn from one other and offer effective models to strengthen the industry. Study tours are one of the most effective ways to provide hands-on learning experiences for professionals. This November, the SME Finance Forum will kick off its Global SME Finance Forum 2018...

How Is Ant Financial Closing the SME Finance Gap in China?

Marie-Sarah Chataing

Khrystyna Kushnir

Jun 07, 2018

There are over 11 million formal SMEs in China and 58% of them are financially constraint according to the MSME Finance Gap 2017 . The size of the finance gap is 17% of GDP. Digital and mobile banking opened new opportunities for affordable finance for China’s entrepreneurs by decreasing transaction cost of making a loan. According to the Global...

Digitization of SME Finance Is a Win-Win for All

Matt Gamser

Sep 28, 2017

Globally, access to finance remains one of the most significant constraints to the growth, productivity and even survival of SMEs – and to the critical jobs they create. The SME credit gap is both a demand and supply side problem. On the demand side, many SMEs cannot get access to credit because bankers cannot see the critical information they...

Ishenim, CreditInfo Partner on Shareholder Agreement

Fabrizio Fraboni

Aug 03, 2017

On June 29, 2017, the Kyrgyz Republic’s Credit Information Bureau “Ishenim” and Iceland-based CreditInfo Solutions commemorated the beginning of a strategic and technical partnership in a landmark shareholder agreement signing ceremony. This fundamental occasion marked an important milestone in the World Bank Group’s Azerbaijan and Central Asia...

Is it Time for the Credit Scoring Industry to Have an Official Set of Global Guiding Principles?

Tony Lythgoe

Sep 29, 2015

Credit Scoring, the process of building mathematical models to predict future credit behavior, is ubiquitous in developed economies and offers significant potential for increasing access to finance and financial inclusion in emerging markets. From its origins in small value credit decisioning in the UK and USA credit scoring has provided, through...

Credit Data Gaps Exist, But They Can be Filled

Michael Turner

May 19, 2015

Consumer and Micro-, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) lending has increasingly become driven by data. This data-driven lending has increased credit access and has resulted in fairer, more objective lending. However, needless to say, data driven lending requires data. Those who do not have data collected on them to properly assess credit risk...

Poor Access to Finance for Women-owned Businesses in India: The Role of Financial Institutions

Anup Singh

Abhay Pareek

Apr 29, 2014

There is huge scope for the financial institutions to innovate offerings and channels to reach out to the underserved yet significant market opportunity presented by over 3 million women-owned enterprises in India. Research highlights how much more difficult it is for women entrepreneurs to obtain bank credit compared to men. Though several...

What is Your Business Worth? - BizEquity CEO, Michael Carter, Has Answers

Michael M. Carter

Feb 12, 2014

The SME Finance Forum recently interviewed Michael M. Carter, the CEO and President of BizEquity , the first patented and leading online business valuation service. BizEquity was created to democratize and provide better access to business financial knowledge for the Global 200 million SMEs. Why did you decide to provide a business valuation tool...

Implementing an SME Finance Program - The Diamond Bank Experience

David Munro

Aug 22, 2013

I was inspired to write The Guide to SME Financing not by the positive experience in Nigeria during 2009-2010 when I pioneered the approach to semi-automated SME finance featured in the book, but by a largely negative experience in Iraq a year later when I was part of a USAID-funded project with the commercial banking sector that, for a variety of...

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