Microfinance Focus, June 7, 2011: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in collaboration with World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) launched a series of publications to help Pakistani banking sector expand access to finance for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

These publications are a result of a study conducted by SBP and IFC in Pakistan that included the participation of 16 commercial banks and over 300 interviews of small businesses in 10 sectors including agriculture, education and logistics.

The booklets are aimed at helping the banks in creating better and low-cost product programs for financing small businesses. They cover issues like market assessment, risk assessment, financial benchmarking, proposed banking products for the sector, and guidance on how these products could be channelled and distributed.

At the completion of the survey, SBP and IFC held a dissemination workshop for banks at Karachi wherein the surveying consultants shared key features and findings of the Project with the participating banks.

Such workshops will also be held in other important SME centres of the country, in order to disseminate the Study’s findings to a larger group of stakeholders, especially the finance providers.