Employees of Alqueria at work processing and packaging milk in Cajica Town, Colombia. © Dominic Chavez/IFC
IFC advises and invests in financial institutions to promote the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies. Our SME Finance Investment Services help to address the estimated $5.2 trillion gap in financing for SMEs worldwide. For financial institutions, investing in SME growth brings risk, but it also carries the potential for great returns on investment.
Our SME Investment solutions include debt, equity and loans, syndicated loans, trade finance, structured finance and securitized products as well as risk-management products and local currency financing. We also support financial institutions to become more efficient and profitable in underserved regions, including fragile and conflict-affected states.
In CY 2018, 7.9 million SMEs received $360.6 billion in loans from banks and other financial intermediaries funded by IFC.