This blog is the summary of our Member Spotlight with Strands . It is crucial for small businesses to be able to use an instrument simplifying money...
In February 2021, we launched our revised pulse survey, to be run quarterly, with more targeted questions to understand how our members, and by proxy...
A webinar summary.* India is the fifth largest economy in the world, and has more than 100 million MSME employees, or 40% of India’s workforce. Only...
This blog is the summary of our Member Spotlight with Strands . It is crucial for small businesses to be able to use an instrument simplifying money...
In February 2021, we launched our revised pulse survey, to be run quarterly, with more targeted questions to understand how our members, and by proxy...
A webinar summary.* India is the fifth largest economy in the world, and has more than 100 million MSME employees, or 40% of India’s workforce. Only...
This blog is the summary of our third Member Spotlight with RootAnt . The concept of sustainability and the recognition of SMEs’ roles in the sustainable supply chain have gradually become more significant these years. Embedding sustainability factors into supply chain finance provides incentives to SME suppliers down the value chain, further...
This blog is the summary of a virtual roundtable : Measuring the Impact of COVID-19 on Women Entrepreneurs The impact of COVID-19 within different industries and countries is overwhelming, but one group was affected across the world – women-owned small businesses. Financial institutions need data, methods, and tools to measure the impact of the...
This blog is the summary of our Member Spotlight with Strands . It is crucial for small businesses to be able to use an instrument simplifying money management and aggregating their entire financial picture on one platform. Banks are taking the lead in providing such solutions, empowering SMEs to take control of their financial future and...
In February 2021, we launched our revised pulse survey, to be run quarterly, with more targeted questions to understand how our members, and by proxy how their SME clients, are faring. This quarter, we had 71 respondents working in 143 countries, out of which 47 are lenders working in a little over 100 countries. Most of our respondents (61%)...
A webinar summary.* India is the fifth largest economy in the world, and has more than 100 million MSME employees, or 40% of India’s workforce. Only 600,000 people within the Indian workforce have access to credit products which are designed to serve MSMEs, leaving out 60+ million MSMEs. Small and medium organizations equate to 99.4% of MSMEs but...
A virtual roundtable summary. Managing liquidity has been one of the major challenges that SMEs encountered since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The governments and credit guarantee institutions have implemented numerous relief measures, including subsidized interest rates, moratoriums on loan repayments, and deferments of tax payments,...
This blog is the summary of our first Member Spotlight with GlobalLinker . The COVID-19 pandemic presented a global challenge for businesses, including MSMEs and Banks, to reach and serve their customers. The global wave of closures and lockdowns paved the path for digitalization of business operations becoming necessary to sustain business as...
A virtual roundtable summary 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...
Dear Members, As 2020 draws to an end, let me take this opportunity to thank you and your colleagues for your continued support during these difficult times. 2020 has been a challenging year for all of us and while we have seen the COVID-19 pandemic throw the world into uncertainty, we are proud that so many of you have found the new services we...
A webinar summary Blockchain is no longer just about Bitcoin. With the rapid development of enterprise-grade solutions, we're witnessing a proliferation of blockchain use cases in the banking industry. Ivy Luu ( nanopay Corporation ) and Dengfeng Zhang ( Linklogis ) joined the panel to discuss the past, present and future impact of technological...
We have now reached the eighth month of our Pulse Surveys and it goes without saying that this long period of data collection would not have been possible without our engaged members! In the months of October and November we had 75 respondents from 43 countries and 62 respondents from 40 countries respectively. In terms of respondent breakdown by...
A virtual roundtable summary Since the COVID-19 pandemic, public entities have introduced various policies and programs to mitigate the economic disruption. However, the relief measures including moratoriums on loan repayments, closure of courts and banks due to lockdowns, increased lending to businesses under government-backed scheme, as well as...
A webinar summary. While the supply chain finance sector is rising steadily, there is still a large unmet need in global trade finance, which has an estimated financing gap of $1.9 trillion annually around the world according to the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable. Nevertheless, with the availability of trade and transaction data,...
A virtual roundtable summary. COVID-19 has created new challenges, which require new solutions and strategic partnerships between FinTech companies, Banks, and Non-Banks. The latest report from the World Economic Forum’s Future of Financial Services series explores how the intersections of emerging technologies like AI, DLT, cloud, and IOT are...
A webinar summary. With the digitization of the supply chain, several technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, have been developed to help financial institutions and other partners reduce risk, lend more efficiently, and connect customers to suppliers. The SME Finance Forum hosted a webinar last week to understand how...
A virtual roundtable summary The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to the field of SME finance, and these challenges won’t be solved without agile fintech companies. Hence, many banks around the world are partnering with, and in some cases acquiring, fintech to provide solutions for their SME clients. As part of a weekly webinar series...
A virtual roundtable summary. Women-owned SMEs are disproportionally impacted by the repercussions of the COVID-19 health crisis. The resulting economic downturn threatens to widen the gender gap in access to finance. Technology has become a key pillar in bridging this gap with banks and FinTech companies successfully leveraging technology to...
It’s been 6 months since we sent out the first pulse survey to our members, and with every month we continue to better understand the state of our members and, by proxy, their SME clients. This month, we had 58 respondents from 42 countries, while the consistent respondent sample, recorded over a four-month period (June-September) consists of 22...
A virtual roundtable summary. The COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges for SME lenders, and some banks were able to overcome these challenges and even acquire new SME customers along the way. As part of a series on COVID-19 mitigation efforts, the SME Finance Forum hosted a virtual roundtable “New Lending into a Crisis” showcasing the...
A webinar summary. SMEs contribute significantly in terms of value-added to the economy and employment in any given country, but especially in emerging markets. However, their contribution is not matched with a proportionate availability of formal financing. For example, in Tanzania, 70% of SMEs have no access to formal financial services. Among...
