Africa: UBA

United Bank for Africa (UBA) is celebrating its 75th anniversary. Among its hallmarks is an unwavering commitment to driving the growth of small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) in Africa.

For UBA—boasting $20 billion in assets, $454.2 million in pretax profits in 2023, and a presence in 20 markets on the continent and four global centers—empowering SMEs means fueling Africa’s economic development.

Its home market of Nigeria is a poster case. With a portfolio of over a million SME clients and a loan book of $90 million, the bank has been instrumental in ensuring that SMEs remain the engine of growth.

Last year, the bank set aside $6 billion to lend to SMEs in partnership with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area secretariat, a program to be implemented over three years. The partnership augments the bank’s defining strength: its ability to support intra-African trade and investments critical for SMEs’ growth.

To enhance convenience for SMEs, UBA has signed up to the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System. The bank also ensures easy transaction processing through its UBA Afritrade and UBA Connect.

UBA has also become a pacesetter in financing women-owned businesses, owing to its strong belief that women should not be left behind in Africa’s socioeconomic development. —John Njiraini

Asia-Pacific: DBS

In making this award, the Global Finance team notes DBS’ close focus on the specialized needs of SMEs—from the clarity of the CEO’s mission statement to the detailed structure and effectiveness of the bank’s SME products.

Outgoing DBS Group Chief Executive Piyush Gupta, who will step down in March 2025, has acknowledged that banks worldwide underserve SMEs. Under his guidance, DBS has worked to rectify this failure.

Together with Enterprise Singapore, DBS launched the ESG Ready Programme, an end-to-end program that aims to help local businesses—especially SMEs—become future-ready by building capability and capacity in sustainability. Participating companies can access a panel of sustainability specialists to guide them on their respective sustainability journeys.

“Banks have not thought enough about the battleground of tomorrow,” said Gupta in a 2015 interview with the National University of Singapore’s Business School. “But it is changing—in the last two years, digitization has now become the No. 1 agenda for most banking CEOs.”

Before the pandemic, DBS had relentlessly leveraged emerging technologies to help SMEs, especially micro and small enterprises, streamline services and manage credit risk. Digital payments, online banking, and blockchain technology emerged and became established during Gupta’s tenure, emphasizing SMEs.

The judges noticed that DBS had developed algorithmic models powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced data analytics to alert the bank to signs of potential trouble SME customers might face, substantially reducing insolvency risk.         —Simon Littlewood

Caribbean: Banreservas

In operation for over 80 years, Banreservas offers more than 315 physical service centers in the Dominican Republic—including traditional bank branches, mini branches, and mobile branches—along with roughly 1,900 ATMs. SMEs account for 16% of the bank’s business, or approximately $1.5 billion, giving Banreservas a 28% market share.

Banreservas offers its roughly 130,000 SME clients a broad array of financial services. Fomenta Pymes (“Promotes SMEs”) is a bank program providing small businesses access to financing products, credit cards, management services, payroll services, and other benefits. Special events include monthslong “loan fairs” through which SMEs shop for financing. In its 2024 iteration, the Banreservas loan-fair program disbursed 5,800 loans, totaling about $238.5 million. These were given to SMEs working in multiple sectors: tourism, construction, commerce, education, healthcare, social services, industry, agriculture, and livestock, among others.

Additional bank offerings include Programa Preserva, a workshop-based program that promotes economic security through saving. Programa Coopera, meanwhile, promotes the Dominican Republic’s socioeconomic development through financial support of businesses throughout the country, including those located in economically vulnerable areas.   —Laura Spinale

Central America: Banorte

SMEs contribute 15% to Grupo Financiero Banorte’s loan portfolio. The financial institution works to better serve that market through an SME expansion plan instituted over the past year. As part of this program, Banorte has focused on increasing its SME offerings to include a full suite of tailored financial products and services. These include various loan types, business advisory services, tax advisory services, and strategic alliances with companies offering products and services of value to the SME market.

Credit is a significant part of the SME expansion plan; and the bank has instituted a new pricing structure, providing credit conditions more favorable to clients. SMEs qualify for these rates through an application process that provides a more holistic view of each SME applying. Available SME financing products include working capital loans, equipment financing, expansion loans, and lines of credit. One of these, Mujer PyME, is a credit facility targeted to women-led SMEs.

Additional advancements include the integration of biometric signatures in branches and a time-saver for account openings.          —LS

Central And Eastern Europe: MAIB

Located in Moldova, MAIB is this year’s regional winner for Central and Eastern Europe. As the country’s largest commercial bank and lender, MAIB has almost 37,000 active customers, an increase of about 13% year-over-year (YoY); and it captures approximately 43% of all newly registered companies in Moldova. MAIB has continued to consolidate its position within the SME sector—about 6,000 companies, primarily within IT, winemaking, and food industries—earning the bank an approximately 37% market share. Despite challenging economic conditions, various strategic efforts have helped the bank achieve record growth within its SME business unit

The bank leverages a customer-centric approach by using feedback to tailor products and services to SMEs. MAIB also emphasizes data-driven decisions, which have helped the bank maintain a profitable loan portfolio despite a declining demand for loans among SMEs, fluctuating grain prices resulting from regional conflicts and weather conditions, and falling interest rates.

To help attract SME customers, MAIB launched internet and mobile banking solutions. The bank created its Business Banking Customer Care Service, which has a dedicated line for SME support and specialists who can resolve customer issues. MAIB’s products and services include night and weekend payments, remote onboarding, factoring, and digital signatures on credit contracts.

The bank has partnered with over 150 companies that sell their products, such as agricultural machinery, photovoltaic panels, and cars, through loans that MAIB originates. The bank is also the first in Moldova to offer consulting services to its customers in accounting, business, and human resources.        —Andrea Murad

Latin America: BTG Pactual Empresas

BTG Pactual Empresas’ SME lending portfolio reached 22.1 billion Brazilian reais (approximately $3.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2024, with its SME credit book growing 52% YoY. SME business now accounts for 12% of BTG Pactual’s total portfolio.

The bank attributes its SME growth in part to its digital capabilities. Its digital platform offers a complete, integrated portfolio of SME products and services—providing access to the bank’s credit, guarantees, insurance, investments, foreign exchange, and derivatives products. Associated services accessible via the platform include creation of invoices payable by QR code; online invoicing; instant electronic bank transfers; open banking; payments to suppliers, tax authorities, and utilities; budgeting and categorized spending services; digital receipts; and other capabilities. The platform offers more than 45 integrations, including Telegram and Google Workspace, along with an extensive range of productivity improvement products.

Speed is a crucial platform benefit. According to the bank, the platform enables the bank to disburse 95% of its loan funds in less than 10 minutes, 16 times faster than its competitors.

Agriculture is a big part of the Brazilian economy, and BTG Pactual Empresas offers services tailored to this sector. These include credit lines for agricultural products (fertilizers, pesticides, seeds); equipment financing; and infrastructure financing for the construction of silos, warehouses, and other facilities.

Activities addressing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues are also important to BTG Pactual. Of its loans to corporations and SMEs, 72% are subjected to social, environmental, and climate-risk analysis, in line with international best practices. R$8.9 billion of its lending portfolio aligns with the bank’s sustainable financing framework.          —LS

Middle East: Bahrain Development Bank

Founded in 1992 by the Bahraini government, Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) is part of that country’s efforts to diversify its economy into non-oil-producing sectors. SMEs are vital to those efforts. BDB strives to support entrepreneurs and SMEs through loans, financing, and advisory and mentorship programs and conferences tailored to the SME market.

The bank offers financial products for various types of SME businesses, including agriculture and fisheries, manufacturing, education, health-care, tourism, and transportation companies. It also provides financial services targeted to women. Over the last several years, the bank has invested in digital transformation. One result of that is tijara, BDB’s digital banking arm. This platform offers SMEs quick access to financing and efficient processing of business transactions, salary transfers, and other payment services.          —LS

North America: Royal Bank of Canada

In September, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) released its annual small-business poll. Results indicate that 51% of Canadians are considering starting a businesses. RBC wants to help them.

The bank operates in more than 30 countries and serves more than 17 million clients worldwide. As of 2023, it had about CA$3.6 trillion (approximately $2.6 trillion) in assets and over 91,000 employees. To improve the customer experience, RBC has invested heavily in digital banking and AI technologies.

RBC strives to support SMEs at every stage. The bank offers various financing and loan options for SMEs, including unsecured and operating lines of credit. It also administers Canada Small Business Financing Loans. Special programs target Black entrepreneurs.

A knowledge base on the bank’s website instructs would-be entrepreneurs at the very earliest business stages. Guides for starting a business, validating ideas, creating business plans, determining startup costs, choosing a business structure, and exploring business financing are available.

Beyond typical banking, RBC also offers several business services, mostly digitized. In the field of payment processing, it offers medical billing software for hospitals and clinics, point-of-service systems, and services enabling merchants to offer buy now, pay later options to their clients. Marketing services help SMEs explore consumer spending patterns, find clients, and embark on global trade. The bank offers a host of payroll and HR solutions. Operations services help entrepreneurs register and incorporate online, protect businesses against cyber threats, automate accounts payable, and perform other tasks.       —LS

Western Europe: Santander

Headquartered in Spain and with operations throughout Western Europe, Santander is named as the best bank for SMEs in Western Europe for the third year in a row. The bank has a wide range of targeted products and services to meet the needs of its customers, which include 114,000 SMEs that make up over 91% of corporate customers and over 95% of digital customers in Portugal.

Through its platform, Santander X, the bank has helped over 7,000 SMEs scale their businesses through training, advice, and other resources. The platform’s training enables SMEs to create a digital presence, expand domestically and internationally, and grow and maintain their workforce. Companies can also participate in competitions for cash prizes and other awards. In addition, this platform creates a global networking community for SMEs to connect with other businesses, providing discounted third-party resources and services.

Through various initiatives, Santander supports SMEs looking to expand abroad. Through the Santander Trade platform, SMEs can analyze different international markets, find international business partners, and support shipments overseas; while the Santander Trade Club helps SMEs find new distributors and suppliers. The bank’s “One Europe” strategy helps identify good practices in other countries—practices that can then be implemented domestically.

The bank develops products and services with the customer in mind, through engagement and solicitation of feedback. The result is personalized products across digital channels and enhanced user experiences.  —AM