Digital finance, using alternative data, offers an extraordinary opportunity for expanding access to finance for small businesses. Every time small businesses and their customers use cloud-based services, conduct banking transactions, make or accept digital payments, browse the internet, use their mobile phones, engage in social media, buy or sell electronically, ship packages, or manage their receivables, payables, and recordkeeping online, they create digital footprints. This real-time, and verified data can be mined to determine both capacity and willingness to repay loans.

In the story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, the magical word “sesame” was used to open the seal of a cave where Ali Baba found hidden treasure. In China today, the same word is connected to another kind of magic, one that reveals hidden identities of the socially and economically disadvantaged. Sesame Credit (“芝麻信用” in Mandarin) is a product launched by Alibaba that pulls from transaction records on e-commerce platforms to understand a person or company’s creditworthiness.

The global economy continues to perform below potential and suffer from significant uncertainty. Despite G20 leaders committing, in 2014, to measures aimed at raising GDP by 2% by 2018 a lack of structural reform and serious constraints for financing along Global Value Chains (GVCs) continue to drag on growth.

The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) said there is a 300 per cent funding gap for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region that banks are not filling. The Abu Dhabi-based fund said that while SMEs make up 80 per cent of businesses in the region, only one in five has a loan or line of credit. "The available financing options for SMEs are almost all in working capital forms as long-term funding for small- and medium-sized enterprises remains small," the AMF said.

Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2017 provides information on debt, equity, asset-based finance, and framework conditions for SME and entrepreneurship finance, complemented with an overview of recent policy measures to support access to finance in 39 countries. The sixth instalment of this annual publication provides a solid evidence base to improve SME policy making.

Financial technology, “fintech,” has been reshaping the financial services industry with the level and speed of innovation that’s simply fascinating.

A month ago, my colleagues and I attended the 5th Annual Lendit USA conference to check out about the latest innovations and thinking in this field and see how we can apply it to our work.

The battle between banking behemoths and new-age fintech firms may seem like the classic David versus Goliath. But dig a little deeper and there may not be much merit in pitting one against the other.

On the surface, one seems like an antiquated giant that’s hard to beat and the other is young, relevant and oh so agile. Fintech firms have the advantage of being able to launch with disruptive, new technologies in a relatively short time. Banks have established brand loyalty, decades of experience, and most importantly, financial muscle.

Recognizing the importance of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises in achieving the new global development goals, the United Nations General Assembly today designated 27 June as International Day for those actors.