The 2014 Annual Report provides a glimpse of the progress made by the SME Finance Forum in 2014 and its future plan of transforming into a global membership organization to ensure its long-term sustainability. 2014 has been an important year for small and medium enterprise (SME) finance. Indeed, it has been a year of strong growth for the SME Finance Forum in particular.

Key Forum-sponsored events in 2014 included: the Development Finance Institutions/ International Financial Institutions (DFI/IFI) event in The Hague, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Roundtable in Istanbul, G-20 events in Australia, a number of events where financial institutions, Fintechs (a business area where new uses of technology and innovative business models encourage new approaches to payments, banking, lending, scoring, factoring), and IFIs/DFIs convened to learn about cutting-edge developments in the field. Two clear patterns emerged from these events:

First, there has been a broadening and deepening in the reach of the SME Finance Forum, both geographically and in terms of bringing in new players. Second, and related, is the establishment and/or deepening of key partnerships.