SME Finance Forum Events

The SME Finance Forum's Immersion Programs are aimed at providing our members with 1-2 day exposure visits to high performing regional or global financial institutions or fintechs to gather in depth knowledge about an innovative aspect of their operations. The immersion visits will allow members to hear practical first-hand accounts from the host institution about the unique challenges they faced and the motivation and process for change, as well as lessons learnt.

Join EIB and AccessHolding for a discussion of the main findings from an EIB report on Banking in Africa. The 2018 EIB study of banking sectors in Africa finds that in many African banking markets, the last two years saw a pause in financial deepening. However, a rising share of banking groups report improving market conditions and plan a structural expansion of their operations in Africa and a continued push for new technologies. 

There is not just one "missing middle" but rather multiple missing middles in terms of the financing needs for the diverse types of small and growing businesses (SGBs) in emerging and frontier markets.

The Global SME Finance Forum 2018 will be held November 5-7 in Madrid, Spain. The annual flagship event of the SME Finance Forum will bring 500+ senior executives from commercial banks, development finance institutions, fintech companies, as well as regulators to focus on leveraging digital banking to serve MSMEs. 

The Africa SME Finance Forum 2018 will examine the key challenges faced by MSMEs in Africa, and explore innovative local and global best practice solutions to promote youth entrepreneurship and enhance access to financing for MSMEs. The conference will focus on how Africa is harnessing digital technology to disrupt traditional banking industry and to create new banking infrastructure to fill gaps where there has been a lack of access to financial services.

Financial institutions are increasingly recognizing the importance of non-financial services (NFS) in empowering women entrepreneurs to succeed. A critical component of these all-important NFS is education opportunities that can fill the business and financial knowledge gaps disproportionately faced by women SME owners and/or operators.

Join Paula Leynes Felipe, IFC Senior Risk Management Specialist for East Asia and Pacific, and the Global Co-Head of the SME Credit Risk Advisory Practice Group & Zhu Tao (Tony), CRO and VP of Lionbridge Leasing for a discussion on the risk practices of NBFIs and the key challenges to strengthen these practices. Lionbridge Leasing is one of the leading promoters of MSME financial leasing, and has served over 50,000 truck drivers and SMEs within 5 years in low tier cities and counties across China.