The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic hardship to millions of SMEs. To help SMEs survive through this crisis, governments and financial institutions have been granting loan repayment holidays to their clients. These payment deferral programs can blur the lines between illiquid and insolvent borrowers, making credit risk assessments more challenging. Lengthy and large-scale loan repayment holidays may factor into financial institutions’ decisions on new lending and could have longer-term implications for the stability of the financial system. 

 

On Thursday, December 17th, 2020, at 8 a.m. EST, during the next and last roundtable of the year, we will hear from executives at Standard Chartered, which operates in 60 countries around the world, and BBVA, a Spanish multinational financial services company present mainly in Spain, South America, North America, Turkey and Romania, who will discuss decisions around moratoriums and the long-term influence on SME finance.

 

• How did the situation with moratoriums evolve in various markets? How did financial institutions adjust? 

• How did financial institutions’ differentiate between illiquid and insolvent SMEs? 

• How did moratoriums influence financial institutions’ decisions on new lending? 

• What will the long-term influence of moratoriums on SME finance be? 

 

 

MAIN HIGHLIGHS OF THIS SESSION

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Host & Moderator: Matthew Gamser, CEO, SME Finance Forum

 

Speakers

Kamal Hingorani is the Global Head of Collections for Retail Banking at Standard Chartered Bank. He is based in Singapore and manages a portfolio covering 25 markets across the bank’s footprint in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Standard Chartered Bank offers the complete suite of retail banking products covering credit cards and personal loans, mortgage and auto loans, wealth management and business banking. He has 25 years of work experience with 20 years in Retail Banking and 5 years in the Telecom industry. His retail banking experience covers Sales, Credit and Operational risk and Internal Audit. He has managed the End to end credit including Credit policy, Underwriting and Collections with experience across Frontline Country and Group leadership roles. He specializes in risk management and has worked out of India, UAE, Singapore and Kenya managing markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

 

Beatriz Uhagón Caillemer is the SME Discipline Leader (Global) for BBVA, based in Spain. She oversaw the development of the global SME banking strategy, in line with the Group’s overall strategy, and the implementation of local SME strategies, considering global approach and the local dynamics, in coordination with local business leaders. She also worked in the identification and transfer of internal and external best practices, ensuring consistency and reusability among countries. Previously, Beatrice was a manager for Residential Financing, managing direct sales network dedicated to finance housing developers in the northwestern region in Spain. Her responsibilities included: clients management and risk assessment and the implementation and execution of the Housing Development Business strategy. Beatrice held different positions in the Retail and Commercial Banking, being the last 5 years as a Customer Banking Center Manager, responsibilities included: management of the Customer Banking Center, including all attached branches, and the head branch. She has a Certificate of Special Studies in Administration and Management from Harvard Extension School, Massachusetts, USA. 

 

NEW: Extra Time with Speakers!

Want to learn more about an institution or speak directly with a panelist from the roundtable? Join our new Roundtable - Extra Time! This is 30-minute breakout session with one of the presenters from the roundtable. Microphones will be unmuted, and participants can speak more conversationally, and ask direct questions to the presenters. Each session will be chaired by a SME Finance Forum moderator.