Publications
Oct 18, 2019
This Small Business Spotlight report by FinRegLab provides an overview of applied research based on data from six non-bank financial services providers, two of which are SME FInance Forum 's members — Accion , Kabbage , Brigit, LendUp, Oportun, and Petal—that have begun using cash-flow variables and scores in a bid to increase the provision of...
Oct 17, 2019
This report, by the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) , examines worldwide evidence of the contribution that the selfemployed and enterprises of different size classes make to total employment. A key finding is that, globally, the self-employed and micro- and small enterprises account...
Oct 17, 2019
This Guidebook , prepared by IFC , addresses the challenges and opportunities faced by SMEs at the various stages of their lifecycles, offering tailored corporate governance recommendations. It includes the Action Planning Tool to help SME owners, investors, and managers take a pragmatic approach to governance, as a means of strengthening their...
Oct 09, 2019
On October 8th, during the 2019 Global SME Finance Forum, IFC and Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women launched a progress report titled "IFC and Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women: Investing in Women's Business Growth". This report demonstrates that WEOF has already exceeded its investment and mobilization goals and has made strong progress towards achieving all...
Sep 20, 2019
This publication, by Hans van Grieken and Andries van Dijk from Deloitte, analyzes the growing impact of ‘digital’ on all aspects of business, from strategy to operations, and how it is driving change in organisations that goes beyond the ‘traditional’ IT model. Many contemporary businesses fundamentally reimagine the way the enterprise identifies...
Sep 11, 2019
This publication is the result of a survey on Very Small Entreprises (VSEs) in the Arab World by the IFC - International Finance Corporation. While this report documents where the sector stands today in terms of serving the VSE segment, it also offers lessons learned by microfinance institutions, who have already upscaled to serve VSEs from the...
Sep 04, 2019
The 3rd Annual Americas Alternative Finance Industry Report aims to provide readers with a snapshot of the rapidly changing alternative finance landscape across the Americas at a macro level as well as on a country-by-country basis. This empirical study provides independent, systematic, and reliable data about the size, growth, and diversity of...
Aug 29, 2019
With the growing recognition of women entrepreneurs’ contribution to economic growth, there is need to understand the state of their operations in India. This report, by the IFC, aims to assess the financing gap through a hybrid approach, including both secondary estimation and primary data collection, and identify the key characteristics of women...
Aug 28, 2019
Digital financial services (DFS) are defined by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion as “the broad range of financial services accessed and delivered through digital channels, including payments, credit, savings, remittances and insurance.” The integration of new digital channels for transactions, information flows and data capture, and identity...
Aug 27, 2019
For Zambia’s digital financial services (DFS) industry, 2018 saw growth in the number of active DFS account users, growth in the number of agents nationwide and growth in the number of products available to customers. These indicators of growth in the industry are findings in the Annual Provider Survey (APS), which UNCDF has conducted for over...