“Effective microfinance depends on effective training, which should involve business simulation games,” argued Michael Kortenbusch, Managing Director of Business & Finance Consulting, speaking at the second annual German-Moldovan forum for SME finance in Chisinau, Moldova on October 25, 2011.

JSC Microfinance Organization Crystal and consulting company Business & Finance Consulting (BFC) have completed a series of trainings and seminars, bringing new techniques and professional experience to one of the leading groups in the Georgian microfinance sector.

A ceremony of diploma presentation as a result of training of bank’s loan specialists took place at Areximbank—Gazprombank Group cjsc. The training was conducted by Business & Finance Consulting, a Swiss company. The project is aimed at delivery of consulting services, targeted at development of lending to small and medium-sized businesses in Areximbank. The seminars were conducted according to two modules: “Basics of SMEs lending,” during which the bank specialists got familiarized with the internationally accepted basic concepts of lending, as well as various approaches to SMEs lending. After the completion of the theoretical module, loan specialists underwent two-week practical course of SMEs lending.

Russian-owned VTB Bank (Armenia) and Business & Finance Consulting (BFC) company have successfully completed a two-year cooperation, VTB Bank (Armenia) press office told ARKA in a press release.

Eskhata Bank is successfully implementing the program of lending to small and medium-sized enterprises with the support from EBRD, which allows to obtain, under favorable conditions, the necessary financial resources for successful development.

Belaruskiy Narodny Bank started cooperation with German Development Bank (KfW) in order to improve lending and servicing programs for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). One of the KfW activities is assisting SME development in CIS countries.

The Moldovan-German Forum on financing small and medium enterprises was held in Chisinau this month. The Forum was jointly organized by the German Ministry of Finance, KfW Entwicklungsbank (German Development Bank) and IDIS Viitorul with the purpose of introducing Moldovan entrepreneurs to Germany’s experience with small and medium business development. At the same time, the Forum served to inform the financial giant KfW about recent microfinance developments in Moldova. Acting through the framework of German Financial Cooperation, KfW has been indirectly working in Moldova since 1999.

Annual Assembly of the European Fund for Southeast Europe

Out of 900 million Euros as planned for the entire region over the next five years, the European Fund for Southeast Europe will set aside 200 million for financial institutions working with small businesses and entrepreneurs in Serbia. This amount could be higher, if the demand for such loans is demonstrated.

On May 18—19 Vostochniy Express Bank hold seminar on successful lending to small and medium enterprises (MSE). Representatives of the consulting company Business & Finance Consulting (Switzerland) and Commercial Bank Taizhou City Commercial Bank (China) participated in the seminar.

Credit scoring has been used for more than half a century by the financial industry all over the world to automise the assessment of risk. In microfinance, credit scoring is still not very common but change is under way. The authors of this chapter believe that credit scoring will become a standard application in microfinance within the next 10 years. This chapter lays out how credit scoring works, how microlenders and their clients can benefit and, finally, what are crucial success factors in the implementation process.