Big banks have always been averse to risk.  They also tend to view small and medium-sized businesses as high-risk, choosing to restrict investment, in terms of both lending and services, for the SMB market. A 2015 credit survey by the Federal Reserve found that smaller institutions were 18 percent more likely to approve a small business loan than big banks, while SMBs that did work with big banks reported an uninspiring 51 percent satisfaction rating.

Income inequality has increased considerably in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–08 to the extent that one percent of global population possess almost half of the global assets. Whereas the development community is unanimous to tackle growing inequality and imbalance in the distribution of wealth, there is a difference of opinion as to the approaches to achieve this goal. This report presents a perspective from Islamic finance on how shared prosperity can be enhanced.

Global SME lending platform Bitbond today announced the closing of an equity funding round of $1.2 million (€1.1 million). This round brings Bitbond’s raised equity capital to a total of $2.3 million. Led by mobilike founder Şekip Can Gökalp, a number of business angels contributed to the round. Among them were Fyber founders Janis Zech and Andreas Bodczek as well as Kreditech co-founder & CEO Alexander Graubner-Müller. Bitbond will use the additional funds for further product development and to grow its user base in markets which are underserved by traditional lenders.

This is the eighth annual report on China's MSME finance development, produced by a team led by Shi Jianping and Yang Rubing of the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Many of us in the West like to romanticise about our respective ‘underserved and overcharged’ SME markets as being ripe for fintech disruption. The reality is, when compared to their small business peers in China, they have a well-stocked buffet of banking options at their disposal.

Mastercard just launched 2KUZE, a digital platform that connects smallholder farmers, agents, buyers and banks in East Africa. 2KUZE, which in Swahili means “Let’s grow together,” enables farmers to buy, sell and receive payments for agricultural goods via their feature phones. The platform brings the benefits and security of mobile commerce and payments to farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

With women comprising more than half the population in Bangladesh, accelerating women entrepreneurship is pivotal to its socioeconomic development. Nevertheless, women entrepreneurs continue to constitute less than 10% of the total business enterprises in Bangladesh. This can be attributed to the many barriers that disproportionately impact women entrepreneurs, both, when starting and scaling up a business – legal and regulatory environment, firm/owner-specific characteristics (e.g. education, training, size of firm, etc.) and cultural barriers.