Karandaaz Pakistan, in partnership with the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Japan; and the Pakistan Resident Mission of Asian Development Bank (ADB) organized a two-day conference—Pakistan Innovative Finance Forum (“Forum”)—on 25 and 26 November 2019 in Islamabad. The second day of the Forum focused on innovative models and approaches for increasing access to finance for small and medium enterprises SMEs. Speakers and panel participants deliberated on various aspects for developing a market for SME financing.

The key topics included: i) data mining for credit decisions, ii) crowdfunding to release reliance on bank capital, iii) invoice discounting and social impact funding, and iv) effective techniques for meaningful impact assessments. In addition, SMEs participating in the Forum also shared first-hand experiences and challenges in accessing finance from formal and informal sources. The complete program for November 26, 2019 is given in Annex A. The discussions and lessons about SME finance are synthesized below.