SME Finance Forum // Berne Union – Joint webinar series (Introductory session)

Background

Insurance can bolster MSMEs’ resilience in the face of the risks and challenges they face, but, at present, in most developing countries, it does not sufficiently fulfil this role as those markets make up only about 20% of global premiums.
Despite the considerable commercial opportunity to reach this largely untapped market, MSMEs are an heterogenous market that insurers generally struggle to distribute products to and gather data on.
These challenges in turn significantly reduce both the willingness and the ability of insurers to not only develop tailored products that meet the unique needs of MSMEs but to also navigate markets in which MSMEs operate that are typically weakly coordinated and lack the lucrative returns that larger enterprises attract.
On the demand side, insurers also face indifferent or negative perceptions from MSMEs towards insurance based on a lack of experienced value from insurance. These perceptions are often driven by poor past claims experience, a weak insurance culture and simply a lack of tangible benefits that make an insurance policy worth its monthly premium. 

Topics and Companies

The webinar will focus on various types of insurance for SMEs and their employees and highlight how various players in the sector each bring their expertise to help support small business growth.
We will explore the following topics:

• How DFIs can invest to create insurance markets to serve emerging market consumers and enable insurers to invest in both capital markets and real sectors.
• How Think Tanks can increase MSME resilience at large, helping insurers bundle together risk-management and mitigation services.
• How Africa's only multilateral investment and credit insurer provides insurance against political and commercial risk to attract foreign direct investment.
• How a national Export Credit Agency can help small businesses sell their products overseas, by providing export insurance and guarantees to lenders.
• How an Indian Insurtech provides SMEs with a comprehensive employee healthcare solution.

International Finance Corporation - Leading private equity investor and advisor in the insurance sector

IFC is a leading private equity investor and advisor to insurance companies in emerging markets, deploying its own capital for a finite duration and often as the anchor investor that attracts additional investors. IFC specialists provide technical advice and initiate operational improvements. We also provide our ESG frameworks and can offer investment products across the capital structure from common equity to senior debt facilities.
IFC has invested over $2 billion in insurance companies, primarily through direct equity investments, and currently has a portfolio of equity investments valued at about $400 million across 22 insurance companies (including 11 Insurtech/early-stage investments).

Cenfri - Designing Resilience Solutions for MSMEs

Cenfri is an independent African economic impact agency that works to boost economic growth and increase sustainable development in emerging markets.
Cenfri focuses on MSME resilience at large and goes beyond simple insurance products to offer MSME tangible risk management solutions. Their experience spans diagnostic studies, development of global and regional standards and national regulations, technical assistance and innovation support (to regulators and the private sector), innovation studies, MSME-tailored resilience solutions, improved risk management in response to climate-related events, and definitive work on cell captives.

African Trade and Investment Development Insurance - Pan-African risk mitigation institution

ATIDI is a multilateral institution whose mission is to transform African risk into opportunity by providing innovative insurance and financial products. They aim to support and promote trade, investment, and other productive activities across Africa by mitigating political and commercial risk. ATIDI encourages and develops the provision of, or the support for insurance, including coinsurance, reinsurance, guarantees, and other financial instruments and services to promote trade, investment, and other productive activities in supplement to those which may be offered by the private sector, or in cooperation with the private sector.

UK Export Finance - Export Credit Agency

UKEF aims to support UK businesses by providing export credit, insurance, and guarantees to help them compete internationally. Their goal is to promote and facilitate UK exports by mitigating financial risks and enabling access to global markets.

Onsurity - Healthcare benefits for SMEs

Onsurity is an Indian insurtech and healthtech company that provides comprehensive employee healthcare solutions, including group health insurance, through a subscription-based model. They focus on offering affordable and accessible healthcare benefits to SMEs. 

MODERATOR:

        James Smouse, Global Head of Insurance, Financial Institutions Group - International Finance Corporation

James Smouse is a seasoned banking executive and portfolio manager with over 20 years of experience. He has a proven track record of generating new business by building and nurturing client relationships. James excels at identifying innovative opportunities in emerging markets, driving profitability for both the company and its customers. Throughout his career, he has successfully negotiated multimillion-dollar equity investment deals, debt transactions, and syndicated loans. His extensive experience includes liaising with C-Suites, Directors, and Shareholders, as well as overseeing and directing international and regional operations to consistently meet business requirements.

OPENING REMARKS:

        Carla Senatore, Deputy Secretary General, Berne Union

Carla joined the Berne Union in January 2024 bringing with her over a decade of experience in stakeholder engagement and business origination within the financial services industry. Before joining the BU, she worked as a senior business developer at UK Export Finance - the UK’s Export Credit Agency - identifying and promoting MLT trade and investment opportunities for UK businesses and their partners in Africa and China.
Previous experiences also include sales and account management roles at independent financial research and data analytics providers.
Carla majored in International Relations in Italy and holds a Master Degree in International Business awarded from the Grenoble École de Management (GEM).
In her role as Deputy Secretary General, Carla’s responsibilities range from overseeing and undertaking research projects to communications management, strategic budgeting and resource planning.

        Qamar Saleem, Global Head of The SME Finance Forum

Qamar Saleem leads the world’s most prominent SME Finance center for knowledge exchange, solution building, innovation, best practice transfer and public-private dialogue. Prior to this role, Qamar was heading Financial Institutions Group Advisory Services for Asia and Pacific aimed at providing integrated investment/advisory client solutions across MSME finance, Gender, Climate, Digital, Housing, Trade, and Supply Chain Finance. Qamar has been with IFC since 2012 and had also served as global technical lead for SME and Supply Chain Finance. Qamar has 30+ years of global financial services experience having worked across 80+ countries, advised more than 300 financial institutions internationally in scaling SME Finance. Prior to joining IFC, Qamar was associated with international organizations like HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank as well as large regional banks while serving in several emerging markets and had launched numerous new business lines, including SME banking, in his banking career.

SPEAKERS:

        Carl Williamson, Director, SME & Trade Finance & Co-Head of Business Group, UKEF

Carl joined UKEF in September 2019 from Lloyds Banking Group, where he spent 31 years in a variety of roles. He was a Relationship Director, managing and developing a portfolio of customers within the Manufacturing & Industrials sector. Prior to this he was Head of Cash Management and Trade Finance, delivering cash and trade products to large London corporates.
As Co-Head of Business Group, he is responsible for the Short Term Business Division and Small Deals & Emerging Sectors business functions. These incorporate various underwriting units helping UKEF grow its support for smaller exporters with a range of Guarantee and Insurance products whilst being supported by a business development function through UKEF’s 27 strong team of Export Finance Managers (EFMs), as they drive the uptake and adoption of the export credit agency’s products across the country.  Additionally, the Marketing & Communications team sits within his remit, delivering UKEF’s external press and communications, driving external stakeholder relationships and creating Events and Marketing material to help raise awareness of UKEF’s stated objectives. 

        Rennie Kagwiria Riungu – Kariuki, Senior Underwriter, ATIDI

Rennie Kariuki is currently a Senior Underwriter at the African Trade and Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI), currently running with ATIDI’s SME Program across Africa. She is a seasoned senior finance and insurance professional, with banking, credit and political risk underwriting expertise. Over the years, she has continuously developed and rolled out Sovereign and Credit Risk insurance products and Corporate and SME finance solutions across Africa with the purpose of promoting economic growth to African economies.
Work engagement has led to frequent interactions with African government officials, local and international financial institutions. While specializing increasingly in the management of complex multifunctional financial projects in Africa.
Known for her solid insurance & finance background and influencing skills, Rennie has engaged with multidisciplinary units at ATIDI, in profitability management by originating business, product innovation, developing standards, improving processes, and building external relationships.

        Vera Neugebauer, Senior Research Associate, Cenfri

Vera Neugebauer is a Senior Research Associate at Cenfri, where she leads the MSME theme. She also serves as the co-chair of the MSME Resilience Best-Practice Group at the Microinsurance Network. With a deep expertise in MSME development, Vera has led several projects focused on MSME segmentation, value chain-based risk solutions, and financial access for women-led microenterprises.

Organizers:

The SME Finance Forum (SMEFF) is a network of 300+ members and affiliates with a coverage spanning across 190+ countries. The members are primarily financial services providers such as banks, fintechs, non-bank financial institutions, development finance institutions, credit guarantee companies, and microfinance institutions. The affiliates consist of policy advocacy groups, academia, SME and banking associations, training providers, and non-profit organizations.
SMEFF was established in 2012 by the G20 and is managed by the International Finance Corporation with a core objective to scale financial services for SMEs.
As the leading SME finance network globally, the forum steers industry innovations, supports replication of best practices, recognizes global champions, drives thought leadership, convenes influential stakeholders, and fosters global knowledge transfer.  

Berne Union (BU) is a not-for-profit association representing the global export credit and investment insurance industry. Our industry sits at the interface of international finance and trade. It provides a bridge between finance, trade and the real economy, acting as a catalyst for cross-border investment and economic growth. Members include the world's largest and most active export credit agencies, multilateral financial institutions and private underwriters of credit and political risk insurance, who collectively provide over USD 2.5 trillion of payment risk protection to banks, exporters and investors annually, supporting more than 13% of global cross-border trade.

*This is a public webinar

*The other two sessions will be dedicated to a deep dive into two specific aspects highlighted above, following a survey sent to all attendees. Tentative dates: end of April and end of June.