Impact stories

All too often, despite their potential as a revenue source for banks, small businesses end up relying on banking services and products designed for consumers. Now two well-known SME Finance Forum members are offering banks digital cash management and commercial payment tools specifically designed for their small-to-midsize customers.

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Impact stories

Nadia Sood was in Nairobi at the 2018 Africa SME Finance Forum presenting CreditEnable as part of the fintech stage, just one of the many opportunities fintechs have with the Forum to present their solutions to a relevant audience. “During a field visit to EcoBank, a couple of people were asking...
In 2016 Rajeev Chalisgaonkar had lending automation on his mind. As the Global Head of Business Banking for Standard Chartered Bank he was looking for technology solutions to help the bank transform the loan underwriting process—part of a broad move towards digitizing their SME banking using...
All too often, despite their potential as a revenue source for banks, small businesses end up relying on banking services and products designed for consumers. Now two well-known SME Finance Forum members are offering banks digital cash management and commercial payment tools specifically designed...
Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), the largest privately-owned bank in East Africa has transformed its offering in the last six years, acquiring over 26 million customers. As Kenya’s most popular bank, SMEs account for 50 percent CBA’s customers and 30 percent of the bank’s overall revenues. With...
Founded 12 years ago, CreditEase offers inclusive finance and wealth management for SMEs. The China-based fintech company provides products and services such as: payment, technology, marketplace lending, crowdfunding, robo-advisory services, insurance technology and blockchain products and services...
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...
BBVA is Spain’s second largest bank and an innovative global financial group that provides financial services in more than 30 countries to 72 million customers, of which SMEs is a very important client segment. In recent years, the bank has reinvented itself as a digital business, and it aims to be...
Bank of Palestine was established in 1960 to serve Palestinians of all socio-economic groups. With a network of 70 branches, 31 percent market share of deposits, 33 percent market share of loans and more than 890,000 customers, the bank serves retail, corporate, small and medium enterprises,...
IDLC Finance Limited , a founding member of the SME Finance Forum, was established in Bangladesh in 1985 as the country’s first-ever leasing company, with equity investment from IFC, the Government of Bangladesh and other investors. Since 2009, IDLC has been growing rapidly and its SME lending...
EcoBank is known for its pan-African presence. Headquartered in Togo, it has operations in 36 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, 11 million customers and over 20,000 employees. Its scale and reach make it unusual among African banks and give it an advantage over competitors. But that scale and...