Saudi Arabia's Monshaat launches SME Bank


Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (Monshaat) has launched the Small and Medium Enterprises Bank as one of the funds and development banks of National Development Fund.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (Monshaat) has launched the Small and Medium Enterprises Bank as one of the funds and development banks of National Development Fund.
 
The bank aims to strengthen the contribution of financial institutions to innovative financing solutions, and achieving the financial stability of this vital sector, which is important as an essential pillar of economic development in Saudi Arabia to achieve Vision 2030, said a statement.
 
SME Bank focuses on providing all its products and services digitally without the need to establish branches, which contributes to the access of services to all regions. It also focuses on applying global best practices in cooperation with local and global partners to build an appropriate product portfolio for every SME segment. 
 
The launch of the Small and Medium Enterprises Bank is in line with the national strategy of small and medium enterprises that Monshaat worked on, which included 16 basic initiatives and 9 pivotal initiatives, one of which was the establishment of the bank, while 3 specific initiatives designed by Monshaat formed the core of the bank. 
 
These are: the indirect lending initiative with a capital of SR1.6 billion; the establishment of the Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC) with a capital of SR2.8 billion, and the raising of the capital of the Kafalah program to SR1.6 billion.
 
The total amounts disbursed in the indirect lending initiative since the launch of the initiative until the end of 2020 reached SR2 billion, while the approved amounts for investment exceeded SR1 billion in SVC, while the total value of guarantees through the funding guarantee program for small and medium enterprises Kafalah from the year 2018 until the end of 2020 was SR32.2 billion, the statement said. -TradeArabia News Service