Articles
Financial Inclusion
Youth Entrepreneurship
Aug 14, 2023
Over 163 million informal workers in emerging markets have found new opportunities through #gigplatforms, but many remain financially excluded. That's why platforms are stepping up to offer financial services to #gigworkers, helping them save, invest, and access credit. The impact can be positive for the workers and the economy. If you're...
Credit Risk & Scoring
Feb 08, 2023
Our member, Asante Financial Services Group, is driven by passion to see to the growth of the MSME sector in Africa. It is through strategic partnerships such as the one with SOLV Kenya, a member company of Standard Chartered Banking Group, that we are able to extend our reach to the Kenyan MSMEs In Sub-Saharan Africa, micro, small and medium...
Alternative Financing
Digital Financial Services
Dec 15, 2022
Digital lending or alternative lending is a catalyst to inclusive financial services for segments that are not a key target for traditional financial institutions. The use of AI-powered decisioning systems for evaluating individual credit eligibility by digital lending platforms has now become critical for micro, small and medium enterprises (...
Sustainable Finance
Digital Transformation
Oct 05, 2022
What we heard on September 21 st …. We kicked off the second day of the Global SME Finance Forum 2022 with Ruth Horowitz - Regional Vice President for Asia and the Pacific, IFC and his Excellency Phan Phalla - Secretary of State for the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Cambodia. Both Ruth Horowitz and Secretary Phan Phalla spoke about the...
Sustainable Finance
Digital Transformation
Oct 04, 2022
What we heard on September 20 th …. Opening remarks were given by H.E. Chea Chanto – Governor, National Bank of Cambodia and Tomasz Telma – Director, Financial Institutions Group, IFC Chea Chanto laid out examples of how Cambodia is increasingly leveraging digitalisation to improve access to finance and Tomasz Telma talked about data driven...
Trade Finance
Sep 14, 2022
This podcast prepared by our industry partner Trade Finance Global, features Matt Gamser, CEO of the SME Finance Forum and Magda Bianco, co-chair of the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI). It gives an overview of current G20 initiatives designed to help SMEs get easier access to finance. Among those initiatives is the Global SME...
Sustainable Finance
Dec 01, 2021
Conference Proceedings of the 2021 Global SME Finance Forum Day 1 - October 18th Opening Remarks Makhtar Diop, Managing Director and EVP, International Finance Corporation (IFC) We need contribution from SMEs to help us reach our sustainability goals. Individually not a major source of greenhouse gases but collectively account for a significant...
Guarantees
Covid-19
May 27, 2021
Posted originally in the Financial Resilience Around the World, World Bank Blog Series Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel region, was already facing difficult challenges when the COVID-19 outbreak occurred. The security context had been deteriorating since June 2018, with an upsurge in violent attacks by terrorists and...
Digital Transformation
Mar 15, 2021
*This article is an excerpt with key highlights from WeBank’s recent presentation at the 2021 Knowledge Annual Conference of the IFC. The pandemic has shoved the global economy into a state of chaos, affecting both large corporations and SMEs across nearly all sectors. However, the global outbreak has also brought opportunities to innovate...
Covid-19
Digital Financial Services
Mar 04, 2021
The past 12 months have brought a multitude of unprecedented challenges for small businesses. It was inspirational to witness how they responded with versatility, creativity and tenacity, and how that brought about rapid innovation, new collaboration and empathy that continues to benefit society as a whole. It was also exciting to see the...
Non Financial Services
Gender Finance
Covid-19
Jan 15, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted many lives across the globe. In this blog we focus on women. Worldwide, the pandemic has hit women harder than men. Women run a higher risk of COVID-19 contagion due to their occupations in health-related activities. They are also overrepresented in jobs where social distancing has been more difficult...
Fintech
Dec 23, 2020
Our member Raiffesisen Bank International’s Partnership Program Elevator Lab’s fourth round took place virtually in the second half of 2020. Elevator Lab had been selected as one of the “Best Financial Innovation Labs in 2020” by the Global Finance. The Lab aims at finding innovative fintech solutions and building mutually beneficial partnerships...
Financial Inclusion
Dec 22, 2020
Our member Kabbage plans to expand on the work done by researchers from NYU Stern on the kind of lenders that had the highest minority share among their Payment Protection Program (PPP) loans. They will work on exploring the reasons behind the found correlation between the lender type and borrower race. The current research note focused on...
Fintech
Dec 17, 2020
We are happy to share that our member Bitbond , Germany’s leading tokenization and digital asset custody technology provider, and Bankhaus von der Heydt (BVDH), one of Europe’s oldest banks, have joined forces to issue a Euro (EUR) stablecoin (EURB) on the Stellar network. The EURB stablecoin is the first stablecoin issued directly by a banking...
Sustainable Finance
Dec 15, 2020
As the world reflects on progress on climate action since the Paris Agreement signing, it has been clear that action by small and medium-sized companies is essential for accelerating the transition to a net-zero emissions global economy. The SME Climate Hub has joined forces with Oxford University to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (...
Covid-19
Dec 10, 2020
We are happy to share that our member U GRO Capital has recently entered into a strategic partnership with the Wadhwani Foundation, a global non-profit organization. The partnership between the two organizations will mutually benefit the micro, small and medium enterprises that are predominantly present in education, healthcare, hospitality,...
Islamic Banking
Dec 08, 2020
We are happy to share that our member Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector’s (ICD) has established Finnovation Award to recognize, showcase and encourage financial institutions that provide an outstanding solution to the financial industry. Finnovation awards are a part of their new online platform “ Finnovation ” which...
Operational Risk
Dec 07, 2020
Our member Afreximbank has taken the lead in creating a platform for Customer Due Diligence (CDD)/Know Your Customer (KYC) issues, with a special emphasis on African financial institutions and corporates. The platform referred to as Mansa will provide a single source of primary data required for performing customer due diligence checks on...
Digital Financial Services
Dec 04, 2020
We’re delighted to share that our member Fern Software’s premier CRM and loans management system, FaaSBank is now used by over 50 community and SME lending organizations from coast to coast in Canada. FaaSBank was collaboratively designed with Community Futures Development Corporations (CDFDCs) in Ontario, Canada. User friendly and intuitive,...
Fintech
Dec 03, 2020
COVID-19 has immensely changed the way we work. With an increase in reliance over online communication and remote work, there has also been an increase in security and data threat issues. Therefore, to meet the needs of modern-day digital challenges, our member Fern Software has partnered with Salesforce, one of the largest cloud-based software...