Marketplace lending providers are pinning their hopes on challenging economic conditions to persuade investors that they can disrupt the lending market.

Private credit funds are committing more to specialist non-bank lenders such as iwoca, seeing big potential in small business credits, even if NPLs are set to climb.

The specialist loan servicer and portfolio manager has grown fast but sees high demand from banks and investors to manage illiquid credit.

Fonsis is an interesting sovereign wealth fund, operating a fund-of-funds model to help the country’s SME development while generating an industry around the management of private capital.

New platforms that underwrite and process invoices due from large creditworthy payers may encourage bank and institutional financing for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Hitesh Anadkat has spent the last 25 years building an African SME banking empire from scratch from his base in the Malawian city of Blantyre. His FMB Capital Group now also has operations in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Mauritius and Botswana; and he is looking to gain market share in them all.

The fintech’s fast growth highlights the large banks’ inability to adapt their technology to provide basic finance to small businesses.

OCBC’s Virtual SME Campus has an expensive public face.

Scarred by the lockdown, suppliers now want payment upfront while customers demand extended terms: a problem is brewing in B2B payments and receivables.

French banks are handing out more state-guaranteed loans than other country in Europe, but they have more to worry about than small businesses in France.

EIB looks to help the most vulnerable and to encourage banks to take on more risk as it unveils a €5.2 billion package for non-EU countries.

Debt forgiveness may stave off an immediate banking crisis in the country hardest hit so far, but the longer-term outlook is grave.

Expo 2020 showcases economic and business opportunities in Dubai. Bankers hope it will lead to a boom in areas such as SME lending and infrastructure investment, but worry that a short-term lift will not be enough to dispel broader concerns about the country’s economy.

Small companies with short trading histories and thin credit files make up a growing part of the economy that established banks are not set up to serve.

The Trade Club Alliance, a new 14-bank partnership to match SME exporters and importers, reflects greater willingness among banks – especially in Europe – to work together against low-cost newcomers, while relinquishing their own global ambitions.

Clients have had a much easier time than their banks in Germany, but fintech innovation is creating ways for the likes of Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank to thrive, even in the country’s SME heartlands.

Zagreb Stock Exchange pilots multi-level market structure with Estonia’s Funderbeam.

Europe’s economy depends in large part on 25 million SMEs, most of them unrated, that will suffer reduced availability and higher cost of credit thanks to Basel III output floors.

Singapore’s banks lead the field in services for small and medium-sized enterprises that go beyond their home base into the surrounding countries: some of the very few cross-border SME businesses that can be found in the world.

Banks’ track record on lending to small and medium-sized enterprises, the growth driver of the economy, remains a mixed one in Europe.

According to the World Bank, small and medium-sized enterprises account for approximately 95% of all registered firms in Africa – financing them is essential to regional growth.

The region’s best bank for small and medium-sized enterprises is Bancolombia.

When Alfa-Bank began focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises 10 years ago, the segment was largely ignored by Russia’s leading banks. Customer service was nonexistent and access to finance was limited, especially for smaller firms.

Most UK SMEs applying for loans have their applications approved, raising worries that banks have loosened standards just as risk mounts.

Trade finance is gaining momentum as a securitized asset class – the resultant increased liquidity may offer corporates access to trade finance much more easily and quickly, especially as digital solutions streamline the process. Will SMEs, which have traditionally found it harder to access the market, be able to reap the benefits as well?

OakNorth shows that SME lending need not be unduly risky and can be highly profitable, and other new banks are following its example.

Of all the global corridors of trade and investment, the one between Latin America and the Middle East is among the least travelled.

CEO says bank liquidity and lavish social spending hamper capital markets development.

Biometrics will help online retailers protect themselves from fraud – but maintaining customer experience at the same time may be a challenge.

Banks have found it hard to lend to Mexico’s large SME segment, but persistence is beginning to pay off for those with the requisite focus – and skills.