The Global SME Finance Forum 2018 will be held November 5-7 in Madrid, Spain. The annual flagship event of the SME Finance Forum will bring 500+ senior executives from commercial banks, development finance institutions, fintech companies, as well as regulators to focus on leveraging digital banking to serve MSMEs.
In every country, rich, poor, or in between, bankers and larger enterprises complain how “informality” constrains their ability to grow and improve their businesses. “Informality” has many definitions, but in general it concerns how the smaller firm doesn’t have some of the things it should have, to make governments/business partners/buyers/sellers/etc more comfortable. The “smaller” firm in many countries can be not-so-small-indeed, even in first world countries like Spain.
Prevailing practice for banks, larger firms and governments has been to sit back, let those SMEs who offer enough formal requirements get served, and leave the others out. This has left a huge gap, and a huge business opportunity – but only if instead of sitting back, all these look to PROACTIVE ways of working with SMEs , ways that help address formality issues while building new business lines. The paradigm of “if they comply first, then we can...” has to become “we will assist their compliance through new services that help both of us”.
This annual forum will explore how innovation in technology, regulation and partnerships can help overcome these various informality problems, and open up a far larger market for profitable, sustainable, responsible financial services.
Topics will include:
- Informality in business structure and basic information
- Accounts, plans
- Assets (including IP)
- Permits, licenses
- Compliance – taxes, employment, etc
- Informality in business processes
- Cash versus electronic payments
- Paper records invoices, smart contracts, etc
- Informality in management
- Supplier management
- Customer management
- Marketing, planning
- Financial management
The action-packed 3–day event will include study visits to high-performing institutions, a B2B marketplace, fintech expos, panels, working groups as well as networking sessions and a gala dinner. The event is hosted by the SME Finance Forum, which runs a global membership network bringing together 140+ banks, fintech companies and development finance institutions to share knowledge, promote collaboration and inform policy.
To get a sense of what to expect from the event, take a look at this video!