Financial Markets

IFC launched the SME Finance Forum -- a G-20 initiative designed to improve access to financial resources for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and catalyze effective SME-financing tools. www.smefinanceforum.org

The Forum is designed to be a knowledge-sharing platform for data, research, and SME best practices. It will promote tools and approaches tailored to policy makers and funders of the SME industry to share experiences and build networks to improve good practices. 

The SME finance Forum is a multi-donor collaboration. The United Kingdoms’ Department for International Development and the Government of Korea were among the first to support this new initiative, with pledges of additional support from other G-20 member countries.

“Governments, the private sector, and donors all have a role to play in helping SMEs gain critical access to finance at every stage of growth. The SME Finance Forum will help foster dialogue about what works,” said H.R.H. Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development and Honorary Patron of G-20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, who delivered the keynote address at the launch event that was held in Paris at the headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The forum’s website is highly interactive and allows for collaboration and sharing of best practices through online discussions. It is intended for use by a broad range of stakeholders, including financial institutions, development finance institutions, policy makers, central banks, regulators, think tanks, and other relevant private sector entities.

As an integral contributor to the G-20’s financial-inclusion agenda, IFC manages the SME Finance Forum. Matthew Gamser, IFC’s Head of the SME Finance Forum, said, “The forum’s success will depend upon the active participation of all the stakeholders for whom it was created."

For more information, please visit www.smefinanceforum.org