Vietnam Bank News

Banks encouraged to target small businesses   2010-09-17 - Viet Nam News

Thirty-five bankers and trainers from 15 institutions in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam yesterday, Sept 16, participated in a training programme on building sustainable small and medium-sized banking operations in HCM City.

The three-day event was organised by the International Financial Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in collaboration with the governments of Japan and the Netherlands.

The programme covered strategy and market segmentation, product design, credit risk management, and information management systems.

It also included a training-of-trainers component that will ensure sustainability of the training offered in local markets beyond the IFC workshop.

The event is part of a training programme developed by IFC’s Global SME Banking Programme to help banks in emerging markets assess the potential benefits of targeting the small-business sector and to build or expand this line of business.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises are a major driver of economic growth and job creation, yet in the Mekong region, smaller enterprises struggle to finance the growth of their businesses.

"Financial institutions often reject SMEs as too risky, usually because they try to serve them using corporate or consumer banking models. Those that rise to the challenge, developing new approaches that fit this market, find that SMEs can become one of their most profitable business lines," said Matthew Gamser, principal of advisory services of IFC in East Asia and the Pacific region.

"That is why training and capacity building in SME banking is so important," he added.

"The SME-banking training is quite comprehensive and of practical significance to banks in Viet Nam as it covers all areas of SME banking. It is also an opportunity to exchange experiences with other SME banking practitioners," said Nguyen Huong, head of the SME department at Vietinbank.

The IFC has also conducted similar training in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa and the Caribbean.

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