While Asia’s emergence as a centre of global trade is undisputed, the role played by small and medium-size enterprises SMEs in this development has not always been reflected in bank services. SMEs have typically been neglected by many banks due to their small size and low margin-high volume business, which puts off many lenders which prefer to focus on multinational corporations MNCs.
But services provided by some SME banks illustrate both the importance of the sector to the broader Asia-Pacific economy, and the growing demands made by SMEs which generate such a large proportion of Asia-Pacific’s GDP. Put simply, the region is dominated by...