Library
Financial Inclusion
Sustainable Finance
Covid-19
Sep 16, 2021
With its wide-ranging economic impact, the COVID-19 pandemic posed an unprecedented challenge to governments and businesses all over the world. Vigorous responses from governments and central banks have succeeded in averting a major global crisis, but the pandemic and the responses to it have left various medium and long-term challenges in their...
Digital Financial Services
Payments
Sep 14, 2021
Washington D.C., September 14th, 2021 - Visa Inc. joins the SME Finance Forum as the newest member of our global membership network. Our members are SME financing experts from 80+ countries who share the common goal of expanding access to finance to small businesses worldwide through knowledge exchange and innovation. “The SME Finance Forum is a...
Fintech
Sep 09, 2021
Fintech International Group , a leading enterprise technology solutions provider in Africa has announced their partnership with 4thWave, a Canada-based Finance and Banking As-A-Service Platform provider. Through this partnership, Fintech is launching Kapilink – an innovative Digital Platform that brings together lenders and businesses to...
Digital Transformation
Fintech
Sep 08, 2021
Erik Feyen (World Bank), Jon Frost (Bank for International Settlements and Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance), Leonardo Gambacorta (BIS and Centre for Economic Policy Research), Harish Natarajan (World Bank) and Matthew Saal (International Finance Corporation) have jointly published a paper about fintech and digital transformation. Economic...
Guarantees
Sep 06, 2021
Credit Guarantees in MENA: Rebuilding SMEs post COVID - Virtual Event 5th International MENA Guarantee Conference 2021 – September 6 th to 7 th , 2021 - 2PM (Saudi Arabia) GMT+3 The COVID-19 pandemic hit Middle Eastern small business hard: survey data collected by the Rand Corporation during the first wave of the pandemic in June 2020 found that...
Digital Transformation
Aug 31, 2021
On 7 July 2021, Mastercard and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) held a series of convenings, focused on the digital transformation of the sector. During those roundtables, the following topics were discussed: How digital technology and collaborative business models are helping to transform the postal sector and creating new ways for posts to...
Youth Entrepreneurship
Aug 24, 2021
International Trade Center (ITC) is the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. It is the only development agency that is fully dedicated to supporting the internationalization of SMEs. ITC is calling for applications on its Youth Ecopreneur Awards. The Youth Ecopreneur Awards are a green business award competition...
Covid-19
Aug 24, 2021
Europe’s banks have a golden opportunity to boost lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In the midst of the pandemic, they are the conduits for billions in state funding to support this crucial segment of the economy. However cumbersome legacy IT systems and outdated risk profiling stand in the way. Agile new competitors are...
Sustainable Finance
Aug 23, 2021
Global SME Finance Forum 2021 is Now Open for Registration! Theme: Greening SME Finance Date: October 18 th to 21st The Global SME Finance Forum is the largest, most technically in-depth, and geographically diverse conference on SME financing hosted around the world each year. Last year, as COVID-19 ushered the world unexpectedly, we decided to...
Islamic Banking
Aug 18, 2021
IsDB Group is a multilateral development bank working to improve the lives of those they serve by promoting social and economic development in Member countries and Muslim communities worldwide, delivering impact at scale. Dr. Mohammed Sulaiman Al-Jasser has been appointed as the new head of the Islamic Development Bank for the next five years. He...
Digital Financial Services
Fintech
Aug 17, 2021
To meet the evolving needs of SME customers, banks are transforming their business models, digitizing their offerings, and creating ecosystems with a whole range of beyond banking services. These banking transformations, however, do not just happen overnight. With their business clients at the forefront of their efforts, some banks are going it...
Financial Inclusion
Aug 11, 2021
FintechOS is an end-to-end provider of SaaS-based front, middle and back office financial technology. FintechOS serves 40+ institutions - banks and insurers - in 20 markets and has offices in London, Amsterdam and Bucharest. FintechOS announced a $10 million investment from the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, as part of its $60 million...
Financial Inclusion
Aug 10, 2021
When IDLC joined the SME Finance Forum in 2015 as a founding member, our global membership network comprised only 70 SME-oriented institutions from 34 countries. Since then, the membership network of the SME Finance Forum has grown steadily. In fact, the SME Finance Forum has just welcomed its 230th member institution. SME finance experts and...
Gender Finance
Aug 09, 2021
Across the globe, e-commerce is thriving. The e-commerce market in Africa is expected to reach $84 billion by 2030. The number of online shoppers has increased by an average of 18 percent every year since 2014, with similar growth anticipated over the next decade. The IFC’s latest report Women and E-commerce in Africa is the first large-scale use...
Digital Financial Services
Aug 05, 2021
FCMB (First City Monument Bank) is a bank-led financial services group, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, with operating companies divided along three business groups: commercial and retail banking, investment banking and asset / wealth management. First City Monument Bank Limited has appointed Mrs. Oluwatoyin Olaiya as executive director, risk...
Fintech
Aug 05, 2021
Washington D.C., August 5th, 2021- Nomanini joins the SME Finance Forum as the newest member of our global membership network. Our members are SME Financing experts from 80+ countries who share the common goal of expanding access to finance to small businesses worldwide through knowledge exchange and innovation. “When we started in 2012, we were...
Supply & Value Chain Finance
Aug 04, 2021
BanQu is a for-profit-for-purpose SaaS platform that enables global brands to have traceable, transparent and equitable supply chains in sourcing, distribution and circular packaging. BanQu is one of the semi-finalists of the 2021 TTI Consumer & Retail Awards. Please take a minute to vote for BanQu. The final day to cast your vote is Tuesday...
Sustainable Finance
Aug 03, 2021
RCBC is majority-owned by the Yuchengco Group of Companies, one of the largest conglomerates in Southeast Asia. It is among the largest private domestic banks in the Philippines in terms of assets. RCBC just released their Sustainability Bonds 2020 Impact Report Video on YouTube. It concluded that sustainability means creating long-term value in...
Digital Transformation
Jul 30, 2021
Following the Asia-Pacific Financial Forum Roundtable, the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) released a report that gathers recommendations to APEC Leaders and Finance Ministers on how regional cooperation can help create the digital infrastructure and ecosystem for financial services to accelerate MSMEs’ digital transformation. It examined...
Fintech
Jul 30, 2021
The Inclusive Fintech 50 competition is extending the application deadline to Friday, July 30th. The Inclusive Fintech 50 initiative leverages a competitive process led by an independent judging panel of experts to identify 50 early-stage fintechs driving financial inclusion and resilience. It is looking for early-stage fintechs in advanced or...