The World Bank approved an additional loan for US$100 million for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Tunisia. This additional support will help finance scaling up a project that has shown good results in improving access to finance for Tunisian MSMEs. It will also add lines of credit for loans to micro-entrepreneurs, and patient financing—that is, long term financing with a grace period—for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), according to the World Bank Group.

What is the current state of impact investing in Latin America? The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) hosted a webinar on April 11 to discuss this topic. The talk was led by Kusi Hornberger, consultant at Bain & Company and the founder of SIMB.co, a blog about social impact business models. This article discusses the three takeaways and thoughts on Hornberger’s presentation.

European companies, and particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), could yet suffer a cash-flow squeeze from direct debits under the Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) regulation, despite the European Commission handing companies an extra six months to comply. According to European Central Bank data, only 41% of companies were Sepa direct debit (DD) compliant as at the end of December 2013, in contrast to 74% for Sepa credit transfers, despite the fact Sepa has been six years in the making.

Globally, innovative models are being explored to provide better funding alternatives to SMEs; one of them is Impact Investment. These investments are made into SME companies / organizations / funds with the purpose to produce quantifiable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. The impact investors here target a range of returns - from well below the market up to market rate, depending upon the business model of the issuer. There are certain bodies and associations working for effective impact investing by building critical infrastructure and developing activities, education, and research that attract more investment capital to poverty alleviation and environmental solutions.

Bank Indonesia recently announced the release of long-awaited new rules on electronic money. Since the termination of the Branchless Banking pilots in 2013, and the subsequent shift in regulatory authority to the newly formed Financial Services Authority (OJK), banks and telcos alike have been waiting for news on how they can use e-money and alternative financial services to reach the huge population of financially excluded in Indonesia. Although the new rules don’t cover the extension of bank accounts through agents, they do provide much-needed clarity and consolidation of existing e-money regulations.

The EBRD has teamed up with Macedonian bank, NLB Tutunska banka, to increase the competitiveness of the Macedonian private sector and to promote energy efficiency in the country with a €6 million financing package, according to EBRD. The EBRD will provide two loans of €3 million each to NLB Tutunska banka for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The challenge seeks solutions that address market access for SMEs, support for SMEs to meet trade standards, workers' rights, and support for SMEs to adopt clean technology. WEC and the U.S. Department of State want to support innovators who collaborate with others to achieve impact and who are ready to take their success to scale.

As many as four winners will each receive up to US$500,000 and technical support to help them expand into new places and spaces. All challenge participants will be invited to join a support network for peer-to-peer mentoring.

In the last few years, digitisation has had a profound impact on how SMEs do business. Mobile technology, in particular, is transforming the way that SMEs source, produce, market and sell their products. The pace of change is also accelerating, with mobile phones widely predicted to become the preferred consumer payment device within just a few years. Not surprisingly, all of this has changed what SMEs need from their financial service providers, ushering in a new age of SME Banking.