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22
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2022-03-01 19:00:00
2022-03-01 19:00:00
G20 Workshop on Digital and Innovative Financial Products and Services for MSMEs Beyond Credit
The G20 countries’ Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion and the Indonesia G20 Presidency are organizing the G20 Workshop on Digital and Innovative Financial Products and Services for MSMEs Beyond Credit. The two-hour virtual workshop will take place on March 2nd, starting at 6:30 PM Jakarta time (GMT+7).
The workshop, to be organized in partnership with the SME Finance Forum, with support from member Islamic Development Bank, Women’s World Banking, IFAD and Better Than Cash Alliance, will showcase examples of innovative non-credit financial products and services helping micro, small and medium enterprises recover from Covid and advance in digital financial inclusion - especially cases targeting women entrepreneurs, youth entrepreneurs, startups and social finance recipients. Technologies presented will cover digital payments, insurance, factoring, leasing, guarantees, risk management and more.
During the workshop, the G20/SME Finance Forum digital database was launched. This database collects further examples of successful innovations in the field of non financial services. Share your own experiences in the database!
Download the brochure here>
Presentation decks are posted on Member Portal.
For questions or assistance in registration, please email Hourn Thy at the SME Finance Forum at hthy@ifc.org.
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Feb
22
SME FINANCE FORUM
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2022-02-01 19:00:00
2022-02-01 19:00:00
Open Webinar: Beyond Funding, What Women Need to Advance Their Businesses?
“Examining critical Financial and Business Support Services”
A recent evaluation (1) of a partnership between Women’s World Banking and Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) has shown that a combination of financial and business support services for MSMEs provides opportunities for both women-led businesses and financial institutions. An IFC study (2) also concluded that providing nonfinancial services alongside finance could help financial institutions tap into the enormous potential of women-led enterprises. Financial services is one part of the equation, the other, business support services.
This joint event between the SME Finance Forum managed by the IFC and Women’s World Banking will facilitate a conversation on how to leverage business support services in order to strengthen women-led businesses with the skills, networks and resources they need to enhance and grow their businesses. Financial Services Providers (FSPs) across Latin America, South Asia and Africa who have pioneered effective and diverse approaches to providing business support services for women-led MSMEs will share their experiences.
They will tackle questions such as:
Why provide business support services?
Who provides the business support services - the FSPs or partner institutions?
What makes for effective business support services for women-led businesses?
What could FSPs do to ensure that business support services are sustainable?
Host
Matthew Gamser, CEO, SME Finance Forum
Invited Speakers
Daniela Konietzko is the President of Fundacion WWB Colombia and Board Member of Banco W. Daniela has been President since 2013. She is also on the board of directors of AFE (Asociación de Fundaciones Empresariales de Colombia), the founding council of ProPacífico, the advisory council of Latimpacto (Latin American Venture Philanthropy Network) and Profamilia´s assembly. She has more than 20 years of experience in multinational companies and NGOs in Colombia and Europe. She writes and speaks on gender, entrepreneurship and financial inclusion. Daniela has a BA in Finance and International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia and a graduate degree in Senior Management and MA in International Cooperation from Universidad de Complutense de Madrid.
Roshaneh Zafar is the founder and managing director of Kashf Foundation, Pakistan’s first specialised Microfinance institution targeting women micro-entrepreneurs through a host of financial and non-financial services. Ms. Zafar worked with the World Bank in Islamabad in the Water and Sanitation department for several years prior to setting up the Foundation. Ms. Zafar was one of the first Ashoka Fellows in Pakistan and has been a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur since 2004. Ms. Zafar has also been awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, one of Pakistan s highest civilian awards, by the President of Pakistan for her work in the field of development and women's empowerment and was also awarded the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2007 and the Vital Voices award for Economic Empowerment in 2010. Ms. Zafar sits on the board of several institutions including the Finca Microfinance Bank, the Pakistan Microfinance Network, the Micro Insurance Network, the BEES network, the Pakistan Medical Council, Kinnaird College and Kaarvaan Crafts. She has also served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Austerity and Federal Government restructuring and writes regularly for the Dawn. Roshaneh is a graduate of the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, USA and holds a Masters degree in Development Economics from Yale University, USA.
Abiola Nejo is the Head of Women’s Banking at Wema Bank. As Head of Gender Proposition and Workplace Banking, Abiola is responsible for designing value propositions that impact the lifestyle and financial needs of women in Nigeria. In her role, she has impacted thousands of women through “Sara by Wema” by offering various value propositions such as the Sara health scheme- a first of its kind, HMO and hospital cash plan for low-income earners, microlending scheme and business advisory services. She has also been instrumental in forging meaningful partnerships with several local and international women focused groups and has positioned the Bank as a gender inclusive organization. Abiola is a graduate of Computer Science from Covenant University Ota with an MBA from Lancaster University UK where she specialized in Global Strategic Management and graduated with a distinction. She is a certified Trainer of Trainers by International Financial Corporation (IFC) and a certified Gender specialist by Financial Alliance of Women. She has attended several trainings on financial inclusion and development.
Maria Fernanda Escobar Posada is the Marketing Manager at Banco W Colombia. Maria Fernanda has been head of marketing since 2012. She was previously head of marketing at companies in the financial, services and telecommunications sectors. She is responsible for planning, directing, controlling marketing strategies, brand and products in order to achieve positioning, and preference in the market, which facilitate the acquisition and loyalty of customers. Maria Fernanda has an Industrial Engineering degree with specialization in marketing from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Banco W S.A, is a commercial bank, operating under the regulations of the Superintendencia Financiera. It has its main business headquarters in Cali, Colombia. The main shareholder is Fundación WWB Colombia, whose main interest is to facilitate access to credit for the socially and economically less favored sectors, with a focus on the micro and small business sector.
Marina Dimova is the Director, Global Head of Financial Industry & Network Advocacy at Women’s World Banking. Marina leads the efforts to support Network Members and financial services providers across the industry to adopt best practices, share knowhow and take tangible actions to advance women’s financial inclusion. Women’s World Banking’s vision is to build a strong peer-learning community, which not only supports Network Members along their respective journeys to women’s financial inclusion, but also is a strong voice and champion for women’s financial inclusion for the financial industry. In her previous position as Managing Director of Design & Innovation, she focused on identifying and designing innovative financial solutions for women and girls. Marina is a designer with over 16 years of experience developing, implementing and scaling innovative solutions to social problems. Previously, Marina was a Vice President at ideas42 and Associate Research Director at Ikatu International. She has also worked on agricultural value chains and private sector development at the World Bank, and in finance and healthcare consulting. Marina holds an MPA in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School, and a B.A. in Economics and Government from Franklin & Marshall College.
For more information, please contact us at smefinanceforum@ifc.org
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(1) Empowering MSMEs – Creating a Better Banking Experience for Women-led MSMEs in Kenya
(2) Non-Financial Services - The Key to Unlocking the Growth Potential of Women-led SMEs for Banks
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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2022-01-25 19:00:00
2022-01-25 19:00:00
Open Webinar: COVID-19 and New Cyber Risk
Risk management during COVID has proven challenging on many levels. Financial intuitions have contended with unprecedented uncertainty of outcomes in credit risk, market risk, and operational risk. COVID-19 accelerated digitization, promoting work from home arrangements and remote banking. At the same time, SME banking is increasingly reliant on access to data to evaluate firms’ performance.
These conditions have introduced new vulnerabilities and operational risks. Cyber security threats, financial crime, and data privacy breaches are on the rise. Disruptions caused by cyber-attacks can be severe, causing both financial and reputational losses. According to BIS, cybercriminals have targeted financial firms more frequently than others since the pandemic started.
Join this webinar on January 26th, 2022 at 8 am EST to learn and discuss:
• How do financial intuitions identify, measure, mitigate, report, monitor, and control for cyber risks?
• How should financial intuitions address cyber risks while digitizing and moving to the cloud?
• How can financial institutions find and attract the right talent to defend against cybercrime? How should firms train their workforce on cyber risks?
Host
Matthew Gamser, CEO, SME Finance Forum
Moderator
Khrystyna Kushnir is the Knowledge Management Lead at the SME Finance Forum. She has over ten years of work experience in private enterprise and financial sector development. Before joining the Forum, Khrystyna worked as an operations analyst at the Development Economics of the World Bank Group. Prior to working for the World Bank Group, she was a Research Assistant for Central and Eastern Europe at the Heritage Foundation. Ms. Kushnir also worked, as a Research Analyst, for the Japanese consultancy Washington CORE on Russian and Asian markets. Ms. Kushnir holds MA in International Economic Relations from the American University and is a Fulbright scholar.
Invited Speakers
Paul Randall was appointed CEO of Creditinfo Group in 2021, after leading the Executive teams and Analytics department for 20+ years. Experience of working in retail and bank lenders and now supporting lenders, whether it be Fintech, Retail, Telco or Banking. Fortunate to be part of a great multi-cultural team that provide a central part the financial infrastructure of 30+countries. Transforming credit risk assessment for individuals and business. Creating new digital lending strategies for lenders using credit bureau, mobile data, other digital data to increase credit and reduce losses. Specialties: Risk Management, Fintech, Credit Bureau, Digital Lending, Scoring Model Development, Credit Bureau Scores, Credit Bureau, Financial Inclusion.
Collen Masunda is a Credit Information Specialist at the IFC, supporting the Credit Infrastructure Global team since 2018. In this role, he provides credit information and data analytics advisory technical assistance. He is also the Deputy Secretariat of the International Committee on Credit Reporting (ICCR), the only recognized standard setting body in credit reporting. He has over a decade prior experience in central banking covering bank supervision; risk management, credit infrastructure; fintech; financial inclusion; policy formulation and implementation. Collen holds a Master of Commerce in Development from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, Bachelor of Commerce and is Chartered Certified Accountant. He also holds Graduate certificates in Applied Business Analytics and Project Management from Boston University.
Gé Drossaert is Fidor Group’s Chief Commercial Officer and Member of the Board. Gé Drossaert is responsible for the strategy for Fidor Group’s technology and innovation expansion in addition to driving co-entrepreneurship projects with banks, non-banks and fintechs. His appointment was crucial in expanding the group’s activities at a global level with offices set up in Dubai, Singapore and New York in addition to associating Fidor with major digital banking and payments market players. Gé carries over 20 years of experience within the banking industry having held senior positions that drove digital banking transformation at CSC (CTO), Saudi Hollandi Bank (Head of Transformation and Change), RBS (Corporate Director, Product & E-Business Banking) and ABN Amro (Vice-President Corporate Director).
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For more information, please contact us at smefinanceforum@ifc.org
By registering to this event, you agree to the SME Finance Forum/IFC Event Privacy Notice.
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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Ene
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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2022-01-11 19:00:00
2022-01-11 19:00:00
SME Finance Virtual Marketplace - Sixth Session - Investors
The “SME Finance Virtual Marketplace” is an online match-making platform that promotes partnership and collaboration between members of the SME Finance Forum, especially financial institutions, fintech companies and development finance institutions/ investors. The virtual Marketplace is powered by GlobalLinker, an AI powered ‘Digital Ecosystem’ offering SMEs a range of services to build digital presence including e-commerce.
How does the Marketplace operate?
To participate in the marketplace session, each member of the SME Finance Forum must have 1) an institutional profile (company profile) and personal profiles (individuals representing the companies) set up on the marketplace. Institutional profile shall also include products/services being offered by the members. With institutional profile and personal profile, representatives of member institutions will be able to explore different offerings by other members such as investment products, advisory services, technology solutions...etc. The virtual platform will enable members to reach out to one another to discuss potential collaboration and partnership at their own convenience.
Sixth Marketplace Session
This sixth marketplace session, scheduled on Wednesday, January 12th from 8 am - 9:00 EST, will feature a series of investors who will present their products/services. Following the presentations, participants will have the opportunities to reach out directly to the presenting fintech to make inquiries or explore partnership opportunities based on their interests.
FINCA Impact Finance (FIF)
Elizabeth Davrishashvili is the Global Lead of Customer Products and Solutions at FINCA Impact Finance (FIF) with a network of 19 microfinance banks and institutions that offer innovative, responsible and impactful financial services to low-income clients. Elizabeth brings 11-years of experience in Strategic Marketing, Data-driven Sales, Product and Process Design as well as Project Management, working at Bank of Georgia (Tbilisi, Georgia), Citi Bank (London, UK) and Liberty Bank (Tbilisi, Georgia). Her major focus at FIF is to enhance the Retail and MSME segments with affordable and efficient products and services. Today, in the digital era, reaching the client is not as challenging, however, digitalization by itself brings some boundaries, therefore Elizabeth’s biggest role is to provide digital product-driven Customer Journeys with flexible, fast and easy financial services. Ms Davrishashvili holds a Master’s Degree in Strategic Management from University College London (UCL) and Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Caucasus University (CU) alongside with 1-year exchange program with Riga Technical University (RTU).
REGMIFA, the Regional MSME Investment Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa
Luz Leyva is the Portfolio Manager of REGMIFA, the Regional MSME Investment Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa, a finance blended fund that is managed by Symbiotics. The Fund invests in financial intermediaries offering financial services to micro, small and medium enterprises and/or providing access to primary goods of low and middle-income households. The Fund has a loan portfolio of USD 150 million covering 21 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her experience includes currency risk management and hedging in the impact investing industry and management of client relationships in international settings. She is an Economist who holds a Master of Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at the University of Columbia in New York and she is also a CFA® charterholder.
Lendable
Chris Wehbé is the Chief Executive Officer of Lendable. Previously, he was a Partner of Arrowgrass Capital Partners where he served as Head of Relative Value globally for the multi-strategy firm, overseeing the Convertible Arbitrage, Volatility Arbitrage, and Capital Structure Arbitrage strategies. He also served as Chief Investment Officer for the firm’s tail-hedging product the Arrowgrass Vega Fund. Prior to joining Arrowgrass, Chris was part of the European Convertible Bond trading team at Lehman Brothers. Chris has completed the CFA program and holds both an MPhil Economics from the University of Oxford, and an M.Sc in Quantitative Finance and Risk Management from Bocconi University, Milan.
Verdant Capital
Edmund Higenbottam is the Managing Director at Verdant Capital, Edmund is an investment banker with extensive experience across London, Johannesburg, Lagos and Dubai. Prior to Verdant Capital, Edmund worked at global investment banks including Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley. Edmund started his career in 2001 and has worked in Africa since 2008. Edmund has a degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
IsDB
Ghassen Khelifi is currently an Investment Specialist at the Islamic Development Bank, IsDB (A Multilateral Development Bank serving 57 Member Countries) involved in the design and implementation of Economic Empowerment projects targeting MSMEs mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa and MENA regions through the structuring of Lines of Finance/Funds/Equity investments in Financial Institutions. Ghassen holds a Bachelor’s in Finance (B.B.A) from HEC Montreal (Canada) and a Master’s in Finance and Investments Management (MSc) from the University of Aberdeen (United Kingdom) and is fluent in English, French and Arabic.
G5 Capital
Chloe Zang is the Head of UK at G5 Capital, corporate venture capital of Jiangong Real Estate Group. Before G5, she was the Managing Partner of a Silicon Valley-based angel investment firm and the co-founder of its shanghai based accelerator. Previously, Chloe was the partner at Dark Horse Group (SZ300688), china's largest incubator and entrepreneurship education platform, responsible for global strategy and business growth. She gained MBA at Imperial College London and her first master's degree in financial journalism in London then worked for BBC for 2 years. Chloe started her career in consulting in China. G5 Capital is the corporate venture capital and innovation arm of Jiangong Real Estate Group, a top-tier commercial real estate company headquartered in Hangzhou, China. G5 invests in both micro VCs and startups across silicon valley, China, Australia, and the UK. G5 UK will be focusing on Scaleup startups from Angel to A, in Property Tech/Smart City/Smart Building/IoT/AI/Robots/Fintech.
Relive the previous session here>
For more information, please contact us at smefinanceforum@ifc.org
By registering to this event, you agree to the SME Finance Forum/IFC Event Privacy Notice.
**
Core Features & Capabilities of the SME Finance Marketplace
Access the Marketplace Platform: As representatives from member institutions, you can access the Marketplace via your personal LinkedIn or Google accounts or simply by signing up via your work email address here> smeff-marketplace.globallinker.com/
Onboarding: Once the personal account is created, you will be guided through an onboarding process to set up the company profile.
Overview: Company Name, selecting head office from Google Maps, selecting member type, uploading logo.
Company Profile: to have a rich company profile, it’s recommended that you provide a brief description about the company. It’d be helpful to indicate what your company offers or what it’s looking for from potential partner institutions. It’s advisable to add digital addresses like website, company’s LinkedIn profile or FB business page links if available.
Marketplace Offerings/Listings: Creating service listings across 8 categories, adding a brochure, video links, cover image etc., if available.
Individual User Profile: as representatives of your institution, you shall have your personal profiles on the marketplace platform to enhance networking opportunities. It’s important to add your designation, job role/designation, time zone to schedule meetings, digital addresses like personal LinkedIn profile, profile photo etc. *Company profile set up is a one-time exercise and any colleague joining from the same company thereafter can simply select the company name and all the details will be prepopulated.
Marketplace: All listings on the marketplace are classified under 8 categories. You can choose to view all listings, or a particular category based on your interests/needs. You could send enquiries directly to companies that you’re interested in or schedule meetings with the key contacts/representatives of the company
Enquiries: Interested members can send enquiries directly to the company by clicking on the "Send Enquiry" button on the listing and the enquiry is sent via direct message and an email notification.
Member Directory: You can browse through the member directory to learn about their work or products/services they offer. You can filter members by their types, review offerings & requirements, visit company profiles, user profiles or listings pages to know more about the company.
Schedule meetings: You can send request for meetings on the platform by selecting the participants you wish to invite. You can upload attachments if helpful.
Messages: Members can send instant messages to other members on the platform to network or explore opportunities. If a specific member is online, their profiles will be carrying a green "Online" tag.
Invite Colleagues: you could invite your colleagues to create their profiles so to expand your company’s presence on the marketplace. While creating their profiles, they have to simply select the company they belong to and all the details set up by you will be pre-filled.
If you have any questions or to learn more, read the User Manual in this link.
Feel free to let us know should you have any questions or need any assistance to smefinanceforum@ifc.org.
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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2021-12-28 19:00:00
2021-12-28 19:00:00
Monthly Webinars
Each month the SME Finance Forum organizes webinars for its members. Members can tune in to the webinars via WebEx or Zoom. The webinars are designed to be interactive and we encourage members to ask questions and engage in a discussion with the speakers.
Join us in 2021, as we host a select program with curated content and industry experts from leading banks or innovative fintechs to talk about their approach to small business finance.
This year, we will cover the following key topic areas: Risk management, Digital transformation, Women entrepreneurs finance Agrifinance, Embedded finance, Credit guarantee and COVID-19 mitigation
2022
January 26th: Open Webinar: COVID-19 and New Cyber Risk
February 2nd: Open Webinar: Business Support Services for Women-Led MSME
April 13th: Open Webinar: The Future of Finance for Women SMEs
2021
February 10th: Open Webinar - India Stack 2.0 - Revolutionizing Credit and Market Access for 60 million MSMEs
March 31th: Member Only Webinar - Insurance for SME Resilience and Recovery
April 8th: Open Webinar - Gender Lens Investing in Financial Intermediaries
April 15th: Open Webinar - How Do We Prepare Women-led MSMEs for Success Post COVID-19?
April 28th: Open Webinar - Unlocking Digitalization Opportunities for Banks and SMEs
May 5th: Open Webinar - Making AI-based Finance Work for Women
June 9th: Open Webinar - Directed Lending Practices across the DFI community
June 16th: Open Webinar - Supply Chain Finance for Women-SMEs
June 23th: Member Only Webinar - Innovations and Technology Disrupting SME Insurance
July 7th: Open Webinar - Fundraising for SMEs and Startups: DeFi vs. CeFi
September 1st: Open Webinar - Making Digital Financial Services Work for Women – A Focus on Digital Adoption
September 30th: Member Only Webinar - Sneak Preview of the World Development Report 2022: Finance for an Equitable Recovery
If you are interested in learning more about the webinars please contact Jessica Alfaro at jalfaro2@ifc.org
*Open Webinar recordings may be accessed on our Vimeo Channel in this link.
** Past webinar recordings are available to SME Finance Forum members on our Vimeo Private Channel (password-protected)
Previous webinars
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
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SME FINANCE FORUM
ronyg@panapps.co
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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2021-12-07 19:00:00
2021-12-07 19:00:00
2021 SME Finance Forum Members’ Meeting
Registration for the 2021 Members' Meeting of SME Finance Forum will be opening soon.
This years' Members' Meeting will be held on December 8th, from 8:00 to 10:00 AM EDT.
Kindly save the date and register on Member Portal.
The SME Finance Forum Team
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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