Improving access to sustainable financial services plays an important role in empowering people, both socially and economically. Services such as Microfinance and Islamic Banking can make a real difference to people in poorer communities, particularly women, helping to alleviate poverty and raise living standards. They can also help to fuel economic growth, opening up new commercial opportunities for Standard Chartered.

• Some customers may be illiterate and have no way of reaching bank branches.
• Products tend to be for smaller amounts and less sophisticated; repayments are often weekly instead of monthly.
• As customers may have no credit history and may only require smaller scale loans, we have to find ways to evaluate credit on a different basis. This has led to the growth of self-help groups.
• Even though women are seen as a lower credit risk they have traditionally been excluded from financial services.

To address these challenges we have partnered with select Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in a commercially viable manner to increase access to financial services.