so the day is not just interesting for being Beethoven's birthday!  check out the link to see many articles with interest for SME Finance on the continent.

"Sustainable banks start by determining basic human needs to be met and then deliver financial services which meet those needs," said David Korslund, senior advisor to the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV). "In contrast", he suggests, "most banks start by asking: 'How can we make as much money as possible?'"Korslund has had plenty of experience to draw on in making this distinction. His 30 plus year banking career began at the South Shore Bank in Chicago, one of the early innovators in sustainable finance. He moved on to mainstream banking to get exposure to the broader banking world becoming executive vice president at a large international bank with responsibility for running global planning and performance management.

Financial planner and coach Dominique Broadway is aiming to change the way we think and talk about money

The International Trade Center (ITC), the joint agency of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and United Nations, has been working in developing and least-developed countries since 1968 to enable small businesses to carve their way into trade and export markets.

ITC executive director Arancha González sat down with The Jakarta Post’s Tassia Sipahutar on the sidelines of the ninth WTO Ministerial Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, to discuss the integration of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into global value chains and the role of Asian SMEs.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has invested US$ 60 million in the debut Eurobond issue of the Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur (BMCE).
On 20 November 2013 BMCE became the first private Moroccan issuer to take advantage of the international credit markets by launching an inaugural US$ 300 million Eurobond.
Accessing the Eurobond markets represents a major step for Moroccan corporations and financial institutions, and should contribute to diversifying their funding sources as well as increasing liquidity in the market.

Out of the 14 teams that competed in the Accra Startup Weekend event, SliceBiz, a startup that is providing a web and mobile platform which connects entrepreneurs and investors for startups were declared winners of Startup Weekend Accra. SliceBiz proposes a disruptive way of giving individuals and investors the opportunity to ‘own a slice of a business startup’.

Financial inclusion is seen as a major driver of economic development in Africa. However, access to financial services by individuals and enterprises is still limited across the continent. Gender plays a particularly important role, as women are much more financially excluded than men. The various challenges differ from country to country. In some countries women have only limited access to credit or insurance products, while in other countries women have more difficulties opening a savings account or face access barriers to any financial product. These diverse constraints offer many opportunities for improving women’s financial inclusion and are often linked to reaching overall development goals. In the past, financial institutions have undertaken efforts that primarily focus on women but with limited broader regional or national outreach. In order to reach a wide range of financial institutions and have an impact on the supply side, while improving women’s access to financial services on the demand side, framework conditions need to be adjusted. This issue has been recognized by African policy makers and regulatory authorities such as the central bank governors of Zambia, South Africa and Mozambique.

The Pacific spans a vast 30 million square kilometres, 14 countries, and represents one of the least banked areas on the planet with nearly 80% of people in the region with no access to formal financial services. Diverse geographies, poor infrastructure, low literacy and subsistence livelihoods all contribute to low financial service participation and mean that millions of people are only transacting in cash.

It’s through ANDE that I met Andrew Stern, of Dalberg Advisors, and we’ve served together on ANDE’s Executive Committee in recent years. I sat down with Andrew Stern to talk about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart—how to spur a financial market to serve the unmet needs of the world’s 450 million poorest farmers while preserving our natural resources.

Westpac’s Larke Riemer is director of women’s markets and not shy about her business, offering straightforward advice for women clients. Five top leaders in women’s banking, including Riemer, spoke today on an eye-opening panel at the 47th annual FELABAN (Latin American Federation of Banks) conference in Miami, FL. The session highlighted how to strengthen female financial inclusion.