IFC SmartTalk video series talks about smart corporate governance

Microfinance Focus, August 12, 2010: IFC (International Finance Corporation), a member of the World Bank Group, has recently brought a video series of round table discussions with IFC corporate governance experts called SmartTalk.  SmartTalk is a series of round table discussions where IFC staff and external guests exchange experiences and discuss different aspects of corporate governance.

IFC is helping financial institutions in emerging markets—banks, microfinance institutions, leasing companies and the like—improve their performance by showing them how to make changes in their approach to governance and risk management. Since 2000, IFC has advised more than 5,000 financial institutions in developing countries on these issues.
“Banks and other financial institutions that follow good governance practices perform better than those that are poorly governed,” says Roman Zyla of IFC’s Corporate Governance Unit.

A recent session convened IFC staff and outside experts sitting in Washington, D.C. and Cairo in a video-conferenced panel. Panelists discussed ways to manage banks’ risks related to credit, market, liquidity and operations, and identified the kinds of risk mitigation strategies that could help reduce such risks. Among the issues addressed: how to balance the risks of lending to smaller businesses that lack a track record with a bank’s stated goal of increasing its small business lending activities.

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