Publications

Dec 22, 2021

Business Case Update 4 Lower NPLs for Women Owned SMEs

IFC’s annual survey of its banking clients continues to provide insight into the potential size and financial performance of women-owned small and medium enterprises (WSMEs) and why financial institutions should pay greater attention to this segment.

Dec 6, 2021

Creating Markets in Madagascar: Country Private Sector Diagnostic

Madagascar CPSD examines inclusive growth, job creation, and economic recovery from COVID-19 through private sector policy reforms and investments.

English - 125 pages | French - 142 pages | 2021 IFC

Oct 29, 2021

Accelerating Sustainable Finance Together: Global Progress Report of the Sustainable Banking and Finance Network

The third SBFN Global Progress Report captures the significant increase in collective efforts across all parts of the financial sector, and between regulators and industry, to develop shared enabling frameworks for sustainable finance.

116 pages | © October 2021 IFC | Complimentary

Oct 25, 2021

Building Resilience Through Digital Financial Services

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the important role digital financial services (DFS) can play in reducing disruptions to supply chains, maintaining economic activity, supporting social transfers and ensuring safe transactions while maintaining social distancing. In these challenging times, IFC’s DFS advisory has worked with clients to build resilience and capacity through the Covid-19 crisis while designing, building and developing innovative business models for financial inclusion. This DFS market research series endeavors to share the insights gathered through this work.

Oct 19, 2021

The Emergence of New Data Ecosystems in Financial Services

This paper provides insights into recent business practices in Southeast Asia and market participants’ views on policy and regulation issues. The research is based on a survey of data issuers, intermediaries, and users (primarily lenders). It focuses on understanding the role of new and alternative data and data providers in making decisions about credit. Some of these new forms of data—including social media data, cell phone data, and data generated from business processes, transactional data, online activity, and others—are being harnessed to support credit-granting decisions. Naturally, a greater number of players now collect, store, handle, and disseminate data relevant for credit-granting purposes, an area that was previously the purview of credit bureaus and credit registries.

Oct 8, 2021

Creating Markets in Haiti: Country Private Sector Diagnostic

The Haiti Country Private Sector Diagnostic (CPSD) provides IFC & World Bank analysis of growth and investment opportunities, constraints, & policy recommendations.

English | 137 pages | 2021 IFC

Sep 13, 2021

Creating Markets in Ecuador: Country Private Sector Diagnostic

The Ecuador Country Private Sector Diagnostic provides IFC & World Bank analysis of private investment opportunities, constraints, and policy recommendations.

English | 196 pages | 2021 IFC

Sep 9, 2021

Creating Markets in Vietnam: Country Private Sector Diagnostic

The Vietnam Country Private Sector Diagnostic provides IFC & World Bank analysis of private investment opportunities, constraints, and policy recommendations.

English | 123 pages | 2021 IFC

Aug 2, 2021

Investing for Impact: The Global Impact Investing Market 2020

A comprehensive IFC assessment of the global impact investing market with estimates of market size, including publicly and privately managed impact assets.

Jul 2, 2021

Blended Concessional Finance—The Benefits of Transparency and Access

Blended concessional finance, the combination of commercial finance from the private sector and development finance institutions (DFIs) with concessional finance from public and other sources, is increasingly being used by DFIs to support developmentally important projects where normal DFI or commercial finance is not available because of the high risks involved.

English | 8 pages—July—Note 105 | IFC 2021

May 27, 2021

Small Business, Big Growth: How Investing in SMEs Creates Jobs

This report aims to capture the key constraints that SMEs typically confront and provide a methodology better suited to measuring the job creation effects of SME finance initiatives by DFIs like IFC.

English | 102 pages | IFC 2021

May 25, 2021

Artificial Intelligence Solutions to Support Environmental, Social, and Governance Integration in Emerging Markets

This paper describes the potential approaches for institutional investors and asset managers to align their investment strategies for emerging markets with the Sustainable Development Goals through environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-integrated investments.

30 pages | © May 2021 IFC, Amundi | Complimentary

May 12, 2021

The Early Impact of COVID-19 on Financial Institutions

The global COVID-19 pandemic and diminished economic activity that resulted from it had a significant impact on financial institutions around the world in 2020. In order to gauge that impact and identify the areas of financial institutions’ operations that felt it most acutely, IFC launched a survey of financial institution clients in October 2020. The survey asked managers to share their assessments of the pandemic’s impact primarily along four dimensions: operations, strategic direction, funding, and loan portfolio. This note summarizes key findings extracted from the responses of 149 clients across 65 emerging markets, representing approximately 30 percent of IFC's outstanding portfolio in long-term finance to financial institutions.

May 5, 2021

Ghana Distributed Solar Market Assessment

This market assessment for Ghana surveys the potential for solar solutions to address the energy access and cost issues facing commercial, industrial and residential customers. This analysis focused on identifying and understanding the market dynamics, market sizing, segmentation, and obstacles restricting the full potential of the rooftop solar market. These focal points are critical to designing interventions to accelerate a budding market opportunity. Both reports also explore solar project economics, which are increasingly favorable in Ghana and many other markets.

May 5, 2021

Nigeria Distributed Solar Market Assessment

This market assessment report for Nigeria surveys the potential for solar solutions to address the energy access and cost issues facing commercial, industrial and residential customers. This analysis focused on identifying and understanding the market dynamics, market sizing, segmentation, and obstacles restricting the full potential of the rooftop solar market. These focal points are critical to designing interventions to accelerate a budding market opportunity. Both reports also explore solar project economics, which are increasingly favorable in Nigeria and many other markets.

Apr 19, 2021

Emerging Market Green Bonds Report 2020

The 3rd edition of IFC & Amundi’s Emerging Market Green Bonds Report provides an overview of EM green bond developments in 2020, discusses policy and regulatory changes driving EM green bond issuance, and provides an outlook for potential for green bond market growth. EM green bond issuance outside of China was resilient in 2020, increasing by 21% from 2019, to $22 billion.

English | 38 pages | IFC 2021

Mar 24, 2021

Armenia Women Entrepreneurship Study

This report presents a synthesis of the main findings of both a qualitative study conducted among women entrepreneurs in Armenia and a quantitative survey conducted among over 400 Armenian businesses. The two studies focused on revealing the patterns, perceptions, opportunities and challenges facing women entrepreneurs in Armenia, including those due to COVID-19. 

English | 120 pages | 2021 IFC

Mar 23, 2021

COVID-19 and Women-Led MSMEs in sub-Saharan Africa

The study reports that women-led MSMEs have been hard-hit by the pandemic due to their smaller size and concentration in heavily affected sectors.

English | 56 pages | IFC 2021

Mar 23, 2021

LAPO Agent Banking in Nigeria - Increased Reach, Client Diversity

Nigeria’s Lift Above Poverty Organization (LAPO) and IFC have a long-standing relationship that began in 2012. In 2017 in the context of this partnership, to help serve unbanked people and those with limited or no access to financial services, LAPO piloted an agent-banking network to expand financial access to the unbanked..

English | 17 pages | IFC 2021

Feb 28, 2021

Blended Concessional Finance and COVID-19

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments, development institutions, and private companies are trying to find mechanisms to prevent the loss of essential economic activity under difficult and uncertain market conditions. In this context, blended concessional finance deployed by DFIs is already playing an even greater role than in the recent past, as it can help bridge critical financing gaps by placing important projects within the risk tolerance of private sector investors and DFIs, despite great market and financial uncertainty. Blended concessional finance will play a critical role to ensure that the response to the pandemic remains focused on the most difficult markets and, as efforts to rebuild are put in motion, the rebuilding is done in an inclusive and climate and gender-smart manner.

English | 8 pages—February—Note 99 | IFC 2021

Feb 10, 2021

GB-TAP Brochure: Delivering Global Public Goods

In 2018, IFC launched the Green Bond Technical Assistance Program (GB-TAP) to respond to the climate crisis by creating a market for green bonds in developing countries. Through this program, IFC and its partners will create global public goods to stimulate the supply of green bonds in emerging market countries in order to meet growing demand for these bonds.

Feb 10, 2021

Green Bond Funds: Impact Reporting Practices 2020

This report surveys green bond funds and investors, provides an analysis of impact reporting practices and case studies from green bond funds, and offers an examination of the challenges of impact data collection and aggregation.

Feb 3, 2021

Using Blended Concessional Finance to Invest in Challenging Markets

Why and when to use blended concessional finance to support private sector projects is outlined by IFC, in a report drawing on its two decades of experience.

English | 64 pages | IFC 2021

Jan 29, 2021

Business Case Update #3: Lower NPLs for Women-Owned SMEs

Business Case Update #3: Lower NPLs for Women-Owned SMEs

Jan 14, 2021

Taking Action on Trade: From Concern to Support

This note investigates COVID-19-related trade restrictions and discusses their consequences. It also illuminates the importance of trade, especially during the current pandemic, through the voices of global leaders as well as a collective set of emerging market voices.

English | 18 pages | IFC 2021