Izmir, Turkey, June 1, 2015 – Leading FinTech companies are joining a G20-supported workshop in Turkey this week to showcase innovations in technology and big data that are helping small businesses get better access to credit.
Several of these FinTech firms are new members of the SME Finance Forum. Established by the G-20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and managed by IFC, the SME Finance Forum brings together private and public sector stakeholders to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of SMEs.
“The SME Finance Forum provides us a great platform to connect with international financial institutions, technology companies, governments, and NGOs to share knowledge, experiences and best practices in SME finance at a global level,” said Dawei Liu, Senior Vice President, CreditEase, the world's largest peer lending platform.
The FinTech executives, who come from AMP, MasterCard, Ripple Labs and CreditEase, are meeting with representatives from development institutions, investors, policy makers and regulators to discuss how to increase financing to new enterprises at a significant scale.
“The SME Finance Forum offers an efficient platform by which to showcase AMP’s innovative small business lending solutions in an environment which encourages a frank exchange of ideas, for everyone’s benefit,” said Thomas J. DeLuca, CEO, AMP Credit Technologies.
The workshop, hosted by the Turkish G-20 Presidency, will cover topics such as alternative sources of data to evaluate creditworthiness; the use of crowd funding; the need for regulatory reform; and how non-bank financial service providers can support entrepreneurs. The SME Finance Forum is working with the G-20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion to support this event.
“We are excited about the work SME Finance Forum is doing to promote innovation and enable more participants to access the global financial system,” said attendee Karen Gifford, Chief Compliance Officer, Ripple Labs.
Global investment in FinTech companies has increased from $1 billion in 2008 to an estimated $6 billion in 2014. “Data is the single biggest problem, and the single biggest opportunity in SME finance. Our FinTech members and other innovators turn data from a liability into an asset, massively reducing the costs of acquiring and serving SME business”, said Matt Gamser, CEO of the SME Finance Forum.
For additional information contact Nadia Afrin at nafrin@ifc.org