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Access to Finance Advisory Services FinNet 2010 will bring together more than 400 internal and external people in the area of Access to Financial Services on October 19-20, 2010 at the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. Included in this year’s line-up – HRH Princess Maxima, UN Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, Bill & Melina Gates Foundation, ideas 42, MicroSave, among others. Specific sessions will cover SME finance, mobile banking, microfinance, microinsurace, agriculture finance, financial infrastructure, and innovative financial product design. A key session on the 2nd day of FinNet (Wednesday, October 20th) will include CGAP partners and donors, and cover the state of mobile banking for financial inclusion.. This report highlights IFC’s progress in access to finance (A2F) advisory services. More than 2.7 billion people in developing countries still lack access to basic formal financial services, such as savings or checking accounts. IFC’s Access to Finance Advisory helps increase the availability and affordability of financial services, focusing particularly on micro, small, and medium enterprises. At the end of FY10, we had an active portfolio of 238 projects in 68 countries, valued at almost $290 million. Our FY10 project expenditures totaled about $50 million, of which 50 percent were in International Development Association (IDA) countries and 14 percent in fragile and conflict-affected countries. More than half of the services are directly linked to IFC investments and over 70 percent serve micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The EIU Global microscope reports on and ranks the microfinance business environment in 54 countries. October 2010. The guide supports financial institutions in making informed choices by sharing challenges, opportunities, and effective practices in SME banking operational models from across the globe and through practical examples of SME banking provided by a number of featured financial institutions. Available in Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. IFC's Advisory Services in Access to Finance are delivered with the support of our donors and partners that include: African Development Fund, Australia, Austria, Bank of Israel, Belgium, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Canada, Denmark, European Union, Finland, France, Inter-American Development Bank, Ireland, Islamic Development Bank, Italy, Japan, KfW Entwicklungsbank, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Millennium Foundation, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, OMIDYAR Network Fund, INC., Saxony (Germany), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and Visa International. For more information on IFC’s Access to Finance Advisory Services, contact:
| SITE TOOLS:    Scaling-Up SME Access to Financial Services in the Developing World  A2F Annual Review Report 2010  G-20 SME Finance Challenge  Global Trade Finance Program  Global Credit Bureaus Program  Creating Opportunity in Emerging Markets— Financial Institutions  Creating Opportunity in Emerging Markets— Private Equity & Investment Funds  Creating Opportunity in Emerging Markets— IFC Microfinance |
