BRAC Bank wins ‘Best Bank for Women Entrepreneurs’ award

BRAC Bank has won ‘Best Bank for Women Entrepreneurs’ Award in the most prestigious platinum category at the 2021 Global SME Finance Forum Awards.

The fastest growing bank in Bangladesh has been recognized by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the SME Finance Forum for Innovations in Small Business Lending under the umbrella of its comprehensive Women Banking Initiative ‘TARA’, said a press release.

Syed Abdul Momen, Deputy Managing Director and Head of SME Banking, BRAC Bank, received the award in Platinum Category as the award was formally announced at a virtual ceremony recently.

Since its launch in 2017, BRAC Bank TARA has become the mainstay to thousands of grassroots women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh when it comes to access to finance, the press release said.

On winning this international award, Selim RF Hussain, Managing Director and CEO, BRAC Bank, said: “BRAC Bank has long been promoting women entrepreneurship through its unique women banking proposition ‘TARA’. With easy financing facilities, ‘TARA’ is realizing entrepreneurial aspirations of thousands of women at the grassroots across the country. We are honoured to have received this prestigious award from renowned development partners - IFC and SME Finance Forum. This international recognition is another step forward for the bank on its journey towards becoming the best bank in Bangladesh.”

Matthew Gamser, CEO of the SME Finance Forum, said: “Every year we see more and more impressive institutions doing incredible things to help improve SMEs’ access to finance. We see great innovations, we see new opportunities for redressing past imbalances due to gender, age and other inequities, and we see new ways to put the customer first and ensure that financing is responsible and truly beneficial. The 2021 competition brings us more of the same – bigger innovations, bigger achievements, and bigger potential.”

Organised by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the SME Finance Forum and endorsed by the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), the Global SME Finance Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of financial institutions and fintech companies in delivering exceptional products and services to their SME clients.

The Global SME Finance Awards recognise institutions that have successfully launched an innovative product or service for SME clients who have achieved impressive results in expanding finance to SMEs, that have shown specific prowess in serving women-owned SMEs and are innovators in responsible financial services, the press release said.

The Best Bank for Women Entrepreneurs category is organised each year in partnership with the IFC Banking on Women Initiative.