SME Finance News & IFC Updates

Global & Regional

news, events & IFC in action

October 2020 | Issue 62

IFC in Action

Asia & Pacific

FIG Asia has delivered 124 virtual events that have reached more than 7,000 participants on crucial topics, including the following:

Digital Financial Services
Gender Finance
Housing Finance
Knowledge Management
Microfinance
Risk Management
SME Finance
Supply Chain Finance
Financial Infrastructure
Climate Finance

The team has brought IFC's attention to every corner of Asia by...

Delivering 124 webinars, since February 2020, to more than 7,000 participants from financial institutions in Asia, Africa, and Europe
Planning another 20 webinars to be delivered by the end of December
Drawing participants from the C-suite and senior management (CEO, CFO, CROs), business unit managers, women entrepreneurs and MSMEs working with large commercial banks, microfinance institutions, and the like
Generating 39 business-development leads, six engagements and four proposals
Specific topics included the following:
Enabling MSME finance through SCF and supporting the enabling environment
Examining the impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs
Building Resilience and Ramping up Support for SMEs and WSMEs
Engaging in policy dialogue with regulators and financial institutions on topics such as credit bureau data, secured transactions, credit-reporting systems, and the like
Discussing global perspectives on the blue economy

Client Strategic Dialogues: As part our systematic approach to helping FIG clients cope with the COVID-19 crisis, FIG Asia has launched a “Strategic Dialogues” Series. We engaged with clients after holding strategic discussions with country managers and country anchors in IFC's Financial Institutions Group.

The objective of the dialogues is to better understand our clients’ needs and priorities and to share experiences and best practices through the pandemic. We have held 43 Strategic Dialogues with clients across Bangladesh, Bhutan, Fiji, India, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea.

Middle East & Africa

FIG MEA’s Advisory Services has rolled up their sleeves, working alongside clients and their customers, since the beginning of the pandemic in the region.

Here’s a quick synopsis:

Organizing 117 webinars, reaching over 9,700 beneficiaries, from 370 financial institutions across 36 countries, covering topics such as human resources, stress-testing, portfolio management, supply chain finance, business plans, and more.
Providing 22 webinars on stress-testing, portfolio management and HR, reaching close to 1,500 participants from more than 340 financial institutions.
Producing 95 Covid-19-response webinars directly for SMEs, in partnership with 23 financial institutions, reaching more than 8,100 SME participants from 13 different MEA countries.
Delivering two Supply Chain Finance webinars for financial institutions in the MEA region, reaching more than 110 participants from the regional banks.
Developing COVID-19 Business Impact Surveys, implemented with FIs across the region to help them understand how their MSME clients are affected by COVID-19 and to follow up with recommendations on how to best support them.

The Business Impact Surveys were shared with 22 financial institutions in eight countries with 1438 MSMEs to date across the MEA region. Results are showing a need for capacity building and long-term financing for MSMEs.

Survey results are published through a series of country notes. The first one was published in October on Guinea.

Latin America & Caribbean

The Advisory Services team in the region is supporting and advising IFC’s partners and clients through the pandemic by:

Launched the Capacity Building Program for MSMSE in Times of Crisis to support strategic IFC partners in building their MSME customers' capacity to survive and adapt in the pandemic:
Organized and delivered COVID-19 response webinars with partners such as Banregio in Mexico; HSBC in Argentina; Bancoldex (the Colombian development bank); and Tu Empresa Program (the Peruvian-government program for SMEs), reaching more than 200 MSMEs directly.
Delivered direct training to partner's staff to build their own capacity to replicate and sustain webinars (train of trainers), reaching over 250 MSMEs beneficiaries so far and with the benefit of increasing MSMEs sustainably reached in the future.

Supported investment clients and potential clients in navigating the crisis to build their risk-management skills:
Organized 5 COVID-19 related risk-management webinars to provide an overview of stress testing and crisis response, total audience of over 850 participants, positioning IFC as an leader and expert in this matter.
Launched a Business Continuity webinar targeting C-suite executives of client and non-clients Financial Institutions, adapted for LAC from an SME Finance Forum. More than 50 C-level executive participants from LAC.
Featured expert panel with industry leaders, such as Allison Szmulewicz, Head of Operations and Technology for Citi Latin America; Vicki Gavin, Cyber Coach at the Cyber Rescue Alliance and former Head of Business Continuity at Barclays; Martin Boer, Director of Regulatory Affairs at the Institute for International Finance; and special guest David Nabarro, WHO COVID-19 Special Envoy.