BRAC Bank was established in 2001 to help grow the vital, yet unbanked SME sector in Bangladesh. The bank’s reason for being is to serve SMEs; with 186 bank branches, 2,500 specialized SME staff and the provision of more than 60 percent of the collateral-free SME loans in Bangladesh, the bank is doing exactly that. 

The overall lending to SMEs by BRAC Bank reached 41 percent of the total loan book at the end of 2017, an increase from 34 percent just two years earlier.  

Matthew Gamser, CEO of the SME Finance Forum, was the keynote speaker at the ADFIMI International Development Forum on September 11-12 in Istanbul, Turkey. Under the theme, “SME Finance and Development in the Age of Digitalization,” the Forum analyzed the current state of knowledge about contributions of SMEs to economic and social well-being globally and in Organization of Islamic Cooperation Countries.

BBVA is Spain’s second largest bank and an innovative global financial group that provides financial services in more than 30 countries to 72 million customers, of which SMEs is a very important client segment. In recent years, the bank has reinvented itself as a digital business, and it aims to be as nimble as a fintech.  

Bank of Palestine was established in 1960 to serve Palestinians of all socio-economic groups. With a network of 70 branches, 31 percent market share of deposits, 33 percent market share of loans and more than 890,000 customers, the bank serves retail, corporate, small and medium enterprises, microenterprises, and the Palestinian diaspora. The bank has been listed on the Palestine Exchange since 2005, and it is the second largest listed company. 

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