Bank Alfalah is one of Pakistan's top five banks by asset size. It is also the first bank in Pakistan to have focused on the SME sector in 2002. However, over the years the bank gradually withdrew from this sector, mainly owing to the absence of the requisite skills, procedures and policies to bank SMEs profitably. In 2011, the new CEO of the Bank quickly realized the potential of banking the Pakistani SMEs and approached IFC to assist them in setting up sustainable SME Banking operations.  IFC is now working with Bank Alfalah over the past few months to re-design their business model, develop financing products for SMEs, re-engineer the credit underwriting process and introduce non financial advisory services. The attached is an interview given by the Bank's Head of SME Banking, Javed Iqbal to one of Pakistan's leading magazines, the Pakistan and Gulf Economist. Javed talks about the reasons the Bank is targeting SMEs, the challenges that they face and are dealing with and the value that partnering with IFC has brought them.