With support from the World Bank, the Western Balkan economies are making significant progress in aligning their national payment systems with EU standards as part of their accession goals.

KEP Trust plans to on-lend the proceeds of the senior, unsecured loan to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

With the issuance of this Green Bond, Zuoli will finance, amongst others, green buildings and energy efficiency projects in the Zhejiang province.

The initiative, known as the Debt Resolution Project, is expected to create a safety net for businesses and investors, improving access to credit, especially for small and medium enterprises.

Li told Reuters in an interview that in “traditional finance” investing in SMEs was rarely worthwhile for global institutions as the due diligence was difficult, risks were high and funding amounts small.

The annual survey on mobile payments showed 98 percent of respondents indicated mobile was their most commonly used payment method, up 5 percentage points from 2019.

The facility has been provided under IFC’s Small Loan Guarantee Program (SLGP), a programmatic approach to risk-sharing that aims to strengthen the capacity of financial institutions to finance SMEs in low-income countries.

Hong Kong-based HKT Financial Services, the Fintech division of the HKT Group, has launched another Fintech project, HKT Flexi, a digital or online financing platform that allows users to make payments via the HKT Flexi App.

As contactless payments become the norm amid the worldwide pandemic response, China rolled out its digital currency this month in four cities, setting it up to become the world’s first cashless society.