Washington, D.C., February 21, 2018 – Kredi Garanti Fonu JSC (KGF) became the newest member of the SME Finance Forum, a global membership network that brings together financial institutions, technology companies, and development finance institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of SMEs.

“200 million businesses worldwide need financing to invest, grow and create new jobs. We are proud to have KGF join our network of 140 members who work to expand access to finance for small and medium businesses,” said Matthew Gamser, CEO of the Forum.

KGF, a member organization of AECM in Turkey, is a non-profit credit guarantee scheme with the aim of easing the access of Turkish SMEs to finance.

"We look forward to sharing information from the SME Finance Forum's working groups, peer exchange visits, webinars and other learning events with our shareholders of 27 banks," Ismet Gergerli, General Manager of KGF.

To see all SME Finance Forum members, please visit: https://www.smefinanceforum.org/members/member-list

About SME Finance Forum

The SME Finance Forum was established by the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) in 2012 as a knowledge center for data, research and best practice in promoting SME finance. As an implementing partner for the GPFI, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) was tasked with managing the initiative. In 2015, the SME Finance Forum partnered with CapitalPlus Exchange to expand and upgrade the former Small Business Banking Network.

About Kredi Garanti Fonu JSC (KGF)

Kredi Garanti Fonu JSC (KGF) is a member organization of AECM in Turkey. It is a non-profit credit guarantee scheme founded on July 1991 with the aim of easing the access of SMEs to finance. KGF is able to issue guarantees up to a total volume of 66.5bn EUR with its sound capital 130m EUR and Treasury counterguarantee of 6.5 bn EUR.