The objective of IFC Advisory Services' Bank Advisory Services program is to advise banks on their strategy to target individual consumers and micro, small and medium enterprises. The advisory services mandate of the program includes working with select banks on their:
- Market research
- Strategy
- Risk management systems
- Information Technology systems
- Product design
- Marketing and distribution channels
- Collections and recovery procedures
The Bank Advisory Services program is engaged in 14 countries across the region.
What Does the Program Offer?
- Advisory services on how to introduce and to develop micro, small and medium enterprises banking and to extend operations in consumer banking
- Conferences and seminars to raise awareness and disseminate best practices
- Training courses on micro, small and medium enterprises banking
Expected Outcomes and Impact
The expected impact of the program is to increase banks’ product and service offerings to individual consumers and micro, small and medium enterprises in order to guarantee that these have better access to finance, which will help them grow and create additional jobs.
Key Achievements
From the inception of IFC Advisory Services in the Middle East and North Africa to the end of fiscal year 2007, the program has been successful at:
- Disbursing a total of over 46,500 loans to small and medium enterprises for a total value of $413 million as a result of the program’s work with financial institutions. The number of small and medium enterprises new deposit accounts opened increased to 1,895, for a value of $147 million
- Increasing partners' clients to about 23,000
- Contributed to creating 14 institutions/departments and/or expanding branch operations
- Helping banks develop and upgrade 51 new products and six new distribution plans, 24 risk supervision procedures, manuals, and scoring tools
- Providing advisory services to about 14 financial institutions
- Involving over 270 financial institutions in conferences and training events
- Training over 1,100 bank staff on credit, marketing, distribution strategies and risk supervision.
Eligible Partners & Clients
IFC Advisory Services in MENA's Bank Advisory Services program selects its client banks on the basis of:
- Committed leadership and good governance
- Complementarities with other IFC Advisory Services programs or IFC investments
Examples of Projects
A key strategy of IFC’s advisory services in the region is increasing the access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises. In 2003, IFC proactively approached the second largest bank in Egypt, Banque Misr, to make a compelling business case for breaking into the microfinance segment:
- The board and management of Banque Misr agreed with the huge potential and asked IFC to design and implement a project to help the bank pilot a microfinance window in five branches in Upper Egypt
- IFC helped the bank draft credit policy, procedures, and operating manuals for the microfinance operation, implement a loan tracking system, train loan officers, and monitor the performance of microfinance operations in the pilot branches
- By the end of the project, five pilot branches were operational and, within one year, the bank had disbursed 13,000 micro loans grossing about $6 million
- Subsequently, the Board and management asked IFC to help the bank roll-out the project to more branches. In 2005, IFC continued working with Banque Misr to increase the quality and outreach of its microfinance project to an additional 13 branches in Upper Egypt and the Delta region
- As of March 2007, the bank had disbursed 40,000 micro loans grossing about $2.5 million with a repayment rate of nearly 100 percent. The project had a considerable positive impact on Banque Misr’s clients in addition to a significant demonstration effect, which attracted the interest of other banks in the country and the region.
IFC Advisory Services and the Arab Academy of Banking and Financial Sciences developed a specialized curriculum for credit and marketing officers, focused on SME banking. To date, IFC Advisory Services has trained 650 bankers using this curriculum and other training materials developed during its advisory mandate.
For additional information contact:
Kaiser Naseem
Bank Advisory Services Program Manager
E-mail:
knaseem@ifc.org 
