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Feb
21
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2021-02-09 19:00:00
2021-02-09 19:00:00
Open Webinar - India Stack 2.0 - Revolutionizing Credit and Market Access for 60 million MSMEs
While India is the fifth largest economy in the world, the MSME sector alone employs over 100 million people or about 40% of India’s workforce. However, current credit products are designed to service only a section of the MSMEs (600,000 of them) leaving out a whopping 60+ million MSMEs. Micro enterprises constitute 99.4% of MSMEs but have a miniscule credit share of 6%-7%, compared with 70% enjoyed by large enterprises, leaving a credit gap of over USD330 billion.
In this webinar, we will look at how digital platforms and the digital infrastructure of the India Stack 2.0 are poised to bridge the gap between these MSMEs and financial services. Specifically, we will discuss how initiatives like Open Credit Enablement Network – OCEN, and Government of India led e-Marketplace - GeM – Sahay will revolutionizing access to MSME Credit and promote access to markets. This new way to do business re-imagines an ecosystem, wherein every service provider can become a tech-enabled credit and product marketplace. Working in tandem with another initiative - the Account Aggregator (AA) framework - it allows cash-flow-based lending and last mile credit delivery to businesses and individuals at the bottom of the pyramid.
Ispirit and U GRO Capital will give an overview of these initiatives. DFIs and an Indian bank will discuss: a) how these platforms and infrastructure developed by the Indian Government will revolutionize access to credit, markets and network for 60 million MSMEs in India; and b) the role that financial institutions and DFIs can play in this endeavor.
Host & Moderator: Matthew Gamser, CEO, SME Finance Forum
About the Speakers
Shachindra Nath is a distinguished corporate leader and the Executive Chairman & Managing Director of U GRO Capital. A university rank holder in Law from the prestigious Banaras Hindu University (BHU), his rise from the humble beginnings in the carpet industry where he witnessed the strife of small businesses to access credit to turning entrepreneur is noteworthy. In his career spanning three decades, Mr Nath has been influential in building two insurance companies, a large asset management company and an NBFC. Some of his biggest achievements include establishing new business verticals alongside foraying into successful joint ventures and partnerships for the group. He has now taken on the role of an entrepreneur by acquiring control of a listed NBFC in 2018 and subsequently rebranding it as U GRO Capital. The company simultaneously raised capital of INR 9500 million under his leadership which is believed to be one of the largest institutional capital raising feats for an NBFC. Mr Nath is known to be an influencer and a hands-on leader who trusts his instincts. At present, he is focused on the MSME credit gap in India. Unlike many other techpreneurs, he is not interested in developing a dotcom company and selling it in a few years. Instead, he wants U GRO Capital to be as technology-driven as any other fintech start-up but wants it to be a business that stands the test of time.
Sharad Sharma is the Co-founder of iSPIRT Foundation. Sharad's mantra is to lead ecosystems and companies through orbit change. He has three decades of experience in the Internet, Enterprise Software, Digital Finance and Digital Health sectors and is a prominent voice in India's technology ecosystem. Sharad is a passionate evangelist of the software product ecosystem in India. He co-founded iSPIRT Foundation, a non-profit technology think tank devoted to making India a product nation. Earlier, he Chaired NASSCOM Product Forum in its formative years and was a member of the NASSCOM Executive Council from 2009-13. Sharad co-founded Teltier Technologies Inc., a wireless infrastructure startup now part of CISCO, and is an active technology angel investor with over two dozen investments. He was also instrumental in the success of India's first IP focussed fund, India Innovation Fund. Sharad has held several senior R&D executive positions with leading technology companies, including Yahoo, VERITAS Software, Symantec, Lucent Technologies, and AT&T. Zinnov gave him the R&D Visionary Award in 2008 for his work on creating a strong MNC R&D footprint in India. Sharad is a member of SEBI's Financial and Regulatory Technology Committee. He has also served on RBI's UK Sinha MSME Committee and National Digital Payments Committee. Sharad got interested in kernel software development while doing his Electrical Engineering at Delhi College of Engineering. He started India's first Student Minicomputer Club in 1984 as served as the Chairperson of the IEEE Student Chapter.
Susan Olsen is a Senior Investment Specialist at ADB. Susan heads the Private Sector Financial Institutions Division Unit for South Asia, based in New Delhi India. Prior to joining ADB, she was Lead Specialist for the Financial Institutions Division of IDB Invest, leading debt and equity operations across Latin America and the Caribbean. Her areas of expertise in the financial sector range from microfinance, SME, Affordable Housing and green finance, and include product expertise in local currency structures, complex multi-stakeholder syndications, as well as risk sharing and guarantee products. Susan was also previously Lead Specialist for the “Opportunities for the Majority” program, a flagship initiative of the Inter American Development Bank to scale innovative private business models serving base of the pyramid markets. Susan holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, as well as Master’s Degrees from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (Canada) and the College of Europe (Belgium). She is certified by the Canadian Securities Institute.
Gaurav Malhotra is currently Director and Co-Head for Financial Services in South Asia for the CDC Group. Prior to CDC, Gaurav worked for Escorts Limited where he was Head, Business Planning and Strategy. Prior to that he was a Principal for leading strategy consulting firm BCG in India. Gaurav holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and B. Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering.
Ajay Rao is the Regional Managing Director for South Asia at U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. Ajay Rao is an experienced impact investor in emerging and frontier markets specializing in healthcare, agribusiness, and financial institutions. He also has experience in port infrastructure and small- and mid-sized enterprise-focused debt funds. Prior to his current position as the Regional Managing Director for South Asia at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), Ajay served as a Director on the DFC’s Social Enterprise Finance Team, originating and underwriting investments worldwide including Georgia, Kenya, Mongolia, Nigeria, India and Pakistan. In India, Ajay has led the accounting for seven projects totaling over $100 million in DFC loans that catalyzed over $150 million of private sector investment for Indian small businesses. Prior to DFC/OPIC Ajay was a small business banker at Citibank, N.A. Ajay is a CFA charterholder, holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the
University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College.
KVS Manian is the Whole Time Director & Member of Group Management Council at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. Kotak has been instrumental in setting up and metamorphosing many business divisions into success stories in his two and a half decade association with the bank. He has played a pivotal role in Kotak's journey from an NBFC to a bank. Currently, Manian spearheads Corporate, Institutional and Investment Banking, and Wealth Management, and is responsible for building a high quality integrated and profitable franchise across these businesses. Under his leadership, the Corporate Bank has grown significantly both in terms of size and profits while maintaining best in class asset quality. The Investment Banking, Institutional Equities and Wealth Management businesses also continue to maintain and improve their leadership positions in the industry. Prior to his current role, Manian scripted the retail-banking narrative of Kotak. He set up the Retail Liability business from scratch, and later managed the entire consumer banking business including Consumer Asset products like Home loans, Cards, Personal Loans, Business Loans, Loans Against Property, MSME and others, some of which were launched and grown to scale in his tenure. Manian is an electrical engineer from IIT (BHU) – Varanasi, Post Graduate in Financial Management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and is a Cost and Works Accountant.
Sanjeev Goel is the Founder & Managing Head, Global Value Creation Partners. Sanjeev has over twenty-two years of emerging markets investment experience. He has invested and managed multibillion dollar investments in over 40 countries for International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group. He is skilled in emerging markets investing, operating in ambiguous environments, and developing investment decisions and strategies with imperfect information in continuously evolving macroeconomic and market conditions. Prior to founding GVCP, Sanjeev worked in the Financial Institutions Group of IFC. Among his senior roles, Sanjeev was the Global Co-Head of Equity Business and, prior to that, Portfolio Head for East Asia. Sanjeev has an MBA degree from George Washington University, B.Com. and LL.B. degrees from the University of Delhi, and professional accounting certification from the Institute of Cost & Works Accountant of India.
This webinar is organized in partnership with member U GRO Capital, a BSE listed, technology focused, small business lending platform. The company is focused on addressing capital needs of small businesses operating in select eight sectors by providing customized loan solutions.
Read a summary of the event here>
For more information, please contact: Jessica Alfaro
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Dec
20
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2020-12-30 19:00:00
2020-12-30 19:00:00
MEMBERS ONLY WEBINAR: PROGRAM FOR 2020
Each month the SME Finance Forum organizes webinars for its members. Members can tune in to the webinars via WebEx or the phone. 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 2020, 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.
January 29th: Managing SME Banking in Challenging Conditions
February 19th: Digital Banking Solutions – Platforms in SME Banking
March 25th: Open Webinar - Digital Banking Solutions – Automating the Lending Process
April 22nd: Open Webinar - Launch of Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2020 Report: An OECD Scoreboard
May 20th: Open Webinar - African Innovations in SME Finance: Mobile Financial Services
June 24th: Data Analytics in SME Banking
July 15th: Data Analytics - Part II
August 18th: Open Webinar - African Innovations in SME Finance - Part II: Payment Technology
September 16th: Supply Chain Finance Innovations: Technology Platforms - Part 1
October 7th: Supply Chain Finance Innovations: Opportunities for Banks - Part 2
November 18th: Trends in Blockchain: Driving the Growth of SME Finance
December 2nd: Open Webinar - Credit Analytics: Innovations in Evaluating SME Credit Risk
If you are interested in learning more about the webinars please contact Jessica Alfaro at jalfaro2@ifc.org
*Schedule subject to change based on the availability of speakers
** 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
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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Dec
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2020-12-01 19:00:00
2020-12-01 19:00:00
Open Webinar - Credit Analytics: Innovations in Evaluating SME Credit Risk
Assessing the credit risk of SMEs is one of the most challenging tasks for creditors as the financial information of SMEs is not always available or complete. Strained economic conditions from COVID-19 pandemic and disrupted supply chains put further pressure on businesses, especially SMEs, thus increasing the potential risk of credit default. New enhancements to credit analytics can minimize the impact on risk by simplifying the credit risk assessment workflow.
In this webinar, we will look at innovations in credit analytics to help financial institutions assess risk and the challenges they encounter during the model development and usage. We will discuss the practical applications of credit analytics and how banks can incorporate existing data like private company data, company firmographics, and other performance benchmarks into innovative and new credit models and scores. In these challenging times, financial institutions will learn new practical uses of their data to improve their credit tools and expand lending to SMEs.
Host
Hourn Thy is the Head of Operations of the SME Finance Forum. Hourn facilitates the delivery of the SME Finance Forum objectives and activities including the implementation of G20 SME finance challenge and knowledge management efforts. He has over 10 years’ experience in business development, SME capacity building and financial sector development. Prior to joining the Forum, he managed the IFC Access to Finance program in Cambodia and Lao PDR for 5 years. He has a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Ecôle Supérieure de Commerce de Paris in France and in International Business Management from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand.
About the Moderator
Thomas DeLuca is a member of the SME Finance Forum Advisory Board. Tom has over 25 years of experience in digital transformation and technology innovation in merchant payments, consumer banking, micro & small business (MSME) financial solutions, microfinance, financial inclusion, digital security, and fraud prevention. Tom was most recently a co-founder of AMP Credit Technologies, a fintech providing loan origination automation technology to banks. Prior to that, he co-founded Planet Payment, one of the first multicurrency payment processors to merchant acquiring banks, which floated on NASDAQ and was subsequently taken private. Before his entrepreneurial initiatives, Tom was an attorney at American Express, where he provided legal and strategic advice to the merchant services division on general commercial issues pertaining to credit card transaction acceptance. Tom received his B.A., J.D. and M.B.A. from St. Johns University and his LL.M. in international trade and business transactions from Fordham University, all in New York.
About the Speakers
Hrvoje Tomicic is a Quantitative Modelling Analyst within the Analytical Development Grout at S&P Global Market Intelligence, where he is developing quantitative models for credit risk. Prior, he worked as a Supervision Analyst of Internal Models at the European Central Bank. Hrvoje holds a Master in Applied Mathematics and a Master in Models and Methods for Quantitative Economics from the Sorbonne University of Paris.
Pascal Hartwig works for Market Strategy - Private Company Data at S&P Global Market Intelligence. He as a Credit Specialist in April 2017 and prior to joining S&P Global Market Intelligence he worked for four years in the Oil & Gas Industry, developing Credit Risk Assessment frameworks and participated in Structured Credit Transactions. In his current position Pascal is in charge of the Go-to-market strategy for private company data.
Paula Leynes Felipe is Principal Operations Officer within the FIG AS Asia team, IFC. Paula is based in Singapore. As the Regional Lead for Business Risk and Integrated Solutions, Paula oversees a strengthened Risk Management Practice Group, with the aim of supporting clients in managing their portfolio and operations during and post COVID.
Beatrice Adhiambo Ogolla is the Head of Retail Credit Risk at NCBA Bank, Nairobi Kenya. She has experience spanning over 13 years in Consumer Credit , SME/Business Banking and Asset finance underwriting. She has been instrumental in policy, process and product reviews and implementation for the bank.
This webinar is organized in partnership with S&P Global Market Intelligence, an American publicly traded corporation with primary areas of business in financial information and analytics. For more information, please contact: Jessica Alfaro
Open Webinar - Credit Analytics: Innovations in Evaluating SME Credit Risk from SME Finance Forum on Vimeo.
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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Nov
20
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2020-11-17 19:00:00
2020-11-17 19:00:00
Members Only Webinar - Trends in Blockchain: Driving the Growth of SME Finance
By invitation only
Blockchain is no longer just about Bitcoin. With the rapid development of enterprise-grade solutions, we're witnessing a proliferation of blockchain use cases in the banking industry. In this webinar, we will look at industry-leading technologies supported by Standard Chartered, Goldman Sachs and Tencent. Outstanding speakers will share their in-depth insights into how blockchain can help financial institutions and other partners reduce costs, mitigate risks, automate workflows and drive the growth of SMEs.
What you will learn
The objective of the session is to understand how blockchain has transformed SME finance. Key questions to address:
• What technological changes and innovations are emerging in blockchain solutions?
• How is the technology impacting SME finance? In particular, in supply chain finance, payment and credit?
• What are the technological and regulatory changes in the blockchain sector over the past decade? What lies in the future?
• How banks and other financial institutions and fintech can work together to lower the entry barrier of blockchain-based applications? What are the obstacles impeding the formation of partnerships? How to remove these roadblocks?
Host
Matthew Gamser, CEO, SME Finance Forum
About the Moderator
Lechi Zhang is a consultant at the SME Finance Forum of IFC. He has extensive experience assisting various fintech and blockchain companies in devising their business strategies. Prior to IFC, Lechi worked briefly in investment banking and private equity. He holds a Master's degree in Financial Policy from Cornell University and has acquired certified skills of developing blockchain network from IBM.
About the Speakers
Ivy Luu is the Director of Liquidity Management Solutions at nanopay Corporation. Ivy is currently leading the development of a real-time cash and liquidity management product for banks and their business clients, and is a leading expert in the areas of treasury products, cash management and real-time liquidity. She is a Certified Treasury Professional and former VP in Treasury & Trade Solutions at Citibank, Ivy Luu has accumulated nearly two decades of payment and treasury experience.
Dengfeng Zhang is the Assistant President of Linklogis, a leading fin-tech company based in Shenzhen. He is currently responsible for product development and innovations at Linklogis. Dengfeng Zhang has extensive academic and practical experience in supply chain management and finance. He got his PhD degree in business administration from the University of Iowa. Prior to joining Linklogis, a leading fin-tech company based in Shenzhen, he worked for PingAn bank, where he led the development of online supply chain financing products. He is currently the assistant president of Linklogis, responsible for product development and innovations.
For members, please register on Member's Portal.
For more information, please contact: Jessica Alfaro
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SME FINANCE FORUM
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Oct
20
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2020-10-06 20:00:00
2020-10-06 20:00:00
Members Only Webinar - Supply Chain Finance Innovations: Opportunities for Banks – Part II
By invitation only
Registration open on Member's Portal
While the supply chain finance sector is rising steadily, there is still a large unmet need in global trade finance, which has an estimated financing gap of $1.9 trillion annually around the world according to the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable. But with the availability of trade and transaction data, there is an opportunity for banks and financial institutions to gain a larger share of the supply chain finance market and help SMEs access the credit they need for their working capital needs.
In this session, three leading financial institutions in supply chain finance will share best practices, and how important innovation and technology is to their successful supply chain finance programs. With the shift toward automation and digitalization, supply chain finance solutions offer an alternative solution of finance that benefit both financial institutions and small businesses alike.
Host & Moderator
• Matthew Gamser, CEO, SME Finance Forum
About the Speaker
Fernando Lardiés is the Global Trade Services Lead at Banco Santander. Since March 2020 Fernando is leading the Global Trade Services Strategic Initiative in Santander’s Global Payment Services Unit. Global Trade Services is responsible for the digitalization and transformation of Santander’s international business offering (payments, FX and trade finance and Supply Chain finance). Before that, Fernando led since 2016 the International Business Global Unit, supporting International Cash and Trade activity for Santander’s Corporate & Commercial Banking. Fernando Lardiés is also Santander’s Board member in the European Payments Council, in the Euro Bank Association, and in we.trade Trade Finance blockchain Consortium. Fernando has held different positions in Santander since joining in 2004. He started in IT Department as Head of Project Office and Control, and in 2005 he moved to the Global Banking & Markets Division where he spent 10 years until 2014. During the first 6 years he headed product areas for Payments, Cash Management and Supply Chain Finance solutions. From 2010 to 2014 he was Senior Banker for Multinationals Segment in Santander Brazil. In 2014 he moved back to Europe, and for 2 years he was Cash and Payments Head for Corporate & Commercial Banking. Before joining Santander, Fernando worked 6 years as strategy consultant for McKinsey&Co in Spain, Latin America and South Korea. Prior to that he worked 3 years as an engineer for National Instruments in the USA and Spain. Fernando holds a BSc in Telecommunications Engineering from Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, a MSc in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a MBA from INSEAD.
Pamela Mar is the Executive Vice President, Knowledge and Applications at Fung Academy. Pamela leads the Fung Academy’s knowledge generation, application, and dissemination in support of the Fung Group’s business success and readiness for the future. As such she directs the Academy’s research & development activities and experiments which form the base of the Group’s strategic response to key disruptions in its business operating environment, including technological change, the rise of sustainability, trade/geopolitical uncertainty and the changing nature of consumption. Prior to her current role, she ran the Academy’s programs that support sustainable, competitive advantage in the supply chains of Fung Group companies, including the use of mobile and IOT technologies, as well as direct supplier training. She was also Fung Group Director of Sustainability and was instrumental in growing sustainability beyond compliance and into a competitive advantage for the Group. Largely as a result, she was named one of 10 leaders on the Eco-business Sustainability A-List at the end of 2019. She continues to teach sustainability as a Honorary Lecturer in the MBA program of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prior to joining the Fung Group, Pamela was based in Shenzhen as a Director in the Global Finance Center of TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings, a major Chinese television and consumer electronics manufacturer. Previously, she was the World Economic Forum’s Associate Director for Greater China, where she built the Forum’s key relations with government and businesses to support the country’s internationalization. Pamela got her first taste of frontline development work in Thailand, in business-backed poverty relief for the Thai NGO, Population and Community Development Association. Pamela has published widely, including four books on Asian development and business and a range of articles, blogs, and reviews. She is a fellow of the Asia Global Institute. She has also given numerous talks on sustainability, corporate responsibility and Asia’s growth and development. Pamela graduated from Yale University summa cum laude with a degree in Philosophy and Chinese Studies. She holds an MSc Management degree from the London School of Economics.
Reynaldo Rodriguez, CFA is the Treasury Manager at Banco Davivienda, a Colombian bank founded in 1972 that renders services to individuals, companies, and the rural sector. He is from the El Salvador subsidiary since 2012 (previously HSBC) and has long experience in treasury, ginancing, investments and stock markets in the region. Part of the Grupo Bolivar, it’s currently the third largest bank in Colombia and also has branches in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Miami. Across those regions, it serves more than 10 million customers through 725 branches and more than 2,600 ATMs.
About the Discussant
Travis Mitro is SAP Ariba’s Director of Payments and Financing for the Asia Pacific region. He is responsible for helping companies transform their Accounts Payables departments from cost centers to profit centers through working capital initiatives. Travis has worked with Fortune 500 companies and their suppliers to better their Cash to Cash cycles in sustainable and cost-efficient ways. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA), Travis now resides in Singapore.
For members, please register on Member's Portal.
For more information, please contact: Jessica Alfaro
WebEx
SME FINANCE FORUM
ronyg@panapps.co
America/New_York
public