Financial inclusion is receiving increasing attention for its potential to contribute to economic and financial development while fostering more inclusive growth and greater income equality. Although substantial progress has been made, there is still much to achieve. East Asia, the Pacific, and...

Difficulty in accessing finance is one of the critical factors constraining the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Asia. Owing to their significance to national economies, it is important to find ways to provide SMEs with stable finance. One efficient way to promote SME...

SMEs often have severe difficulties raising money. Considering the bank-dominated characteristic of economies in Asia, banks are the main source of financing. In order to prevent the accumulation of non-performing loans in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector, it is crucial for...

Within a patriarchal society, women are placed in a precarious societal positioning that leads to a prevalence of gender inequality in education, financial literacy, and access to finance. In the context of Asia, where small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of most Asian...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the Asian economy. They make up more than 98% of all Asian businesses that provide two out of three private sector jobs in the region. Therefore, it is vitally important for Asia's economic success to have fully functioning support...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have difficulties in accessing finance because of information asymmetry and a lack of collateral. A credit guarantee scheme is a suitable method to unlock lending to SMEs; however, it involves SMEs paying a fee, which needs to account for their risk. The...

The credit risk database (CRD) makes it possible to mitigate the problem of information asymmetry between SMEs and financial institutions and contributes to improving SMEs' access to finance by collecting a large number of financial statements through the mechanism of SME finances and...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of most Asian economies. The main obstacle to the development of the SME sector is the lack of stable finance. Considering the bank-dominated characteristic of economies in Asia, banks are the main source of financing, and the lack of a...