Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, January 23, 2014
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, signed an advisory agreement with one of Mongolia’s largest banks, XacBank, to expand financing to more small and medium enterprises, especially those run by women entrepreneurs.
The Mongolian bank becomes the second lender to join IFC’s Women in Business Program for East Asia and the Pacific, launched last year to help commercial banks provide more and better financial and business development services to small and medium women businesses.
Women run or partly own more than half of Mongolia’s companies, but women-owned businesses are still underrepresented on the loan portfolios of banks. Women entrepreneurs have repeatedly identified insufficient access to finance and business development services as major constraints to growing their businesses.
“Innovation is critical for XacBank’s future growth,” said XacBank Chief Executive Officer Bat-Ochir Dugersuren. “We are committed to partnering with IFC to make new ventures that enhance our competitiveness.”
IFC will help XacBank explore new financing opportunities for small and medium enterprises, develop a strategy for targeting the women’s market, and improve risk management. In particular, IFC will help XacBank introduce innovative customer management practices to enhance the lender's ability to understand, target, and retain small-business clients.
“Women are critical to economic growth and development in Mongolia,” said Hyun-Chan Cho, IFC’s Country Manager for China, Mongolia, and Korea. “We can help XacBank respond to their business needs in a commercially and socially sustainable way.”
The IFC Women in Business program aims to reach more than 10,000 women-owned small and medium enterprises and disburse around $200 million in loans by June 2017. Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. from the Philippines is the first bank to join the program.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. Working with private enterprises in more than 100 countries, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to help eliminate extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. In FY13, our investments climbed to an all-time high of nearly $25 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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