Tailor-made Excel training for the Employees of the Bielskie Entrepreneurship Center Association under SIFTA Program

MFC recently organized a bespoke Excel training session for the employees of the Bielskie Entrepreneurship Center Association.

Under the guidance of our expert trainer, Michał Jaźwiecki from NT Group, the teams delved into the intricacies of formulas, referencing, aggregation, and deductions.

You might be surprised to hear it, but Excel can be thrilling! 🙃

The training was organized under SIFTA Program.

€165 million to support gender equality, refugee inclusion and development in southern Italy

European Investment Bank (EIB) and Banca Etica have signed a €60 million agreement with the main goals of promoting labour market integration and better services for refugees, making it easier for women-led companies to access finance and supporting projects in cohesion regions. The operation is expected to help stimulate €165 million of investment in the real economy, creating a lasting positive impact on society.

The agreement is split into three sections aiming to support the same number of priorities. The first is that at least 30% of the EIB funds will go to women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This operation aims to narrow the gender gap, making it easier for women entrepreneurs to access finance and help for growing their businesses.

The second section states that at least 30% of the funds will be allocated to projects aiming to improve infrastructure and social services for refugees and helping refugees to enter the labour market. The goal is to create better living conditions and foster the economic empowerment of refugees via investment in housing, education and vocational training.

The third and final section states that at least 30% of the resources will go to SME projects in cohesion regions, helping to strengthen the economy and society, create job opportunities and reduce regional disparities.

The EIB will also provide free technical assistance under the Social Inclusive Finance Technical Assistance (SIFTA) programme. This is being financed by the InvestEU Advisory Hub and will help Banca Etica to allocate resources to women-led SMEs, refugee services and businesses operating in cohesion regions. Launched in 2022, the SIFTA programme has supported around 60 microfinance and credit institutions investing in high social impact companies in over 20 EU countries, helping with investment preparation, portfolio analysis and the creation of a pipeline of operations.

Symbiotics: 2 Decades of Innovation, Collaboration and Impact

This year marks a significant milestone for our member, Symbiotics: two decades of innovation, collaboration, and impact.

What began as a small team with big ideas has evolved into a global network of investors, entrepreneurs, and partners, united by the shared vision that financial success and social impact can go hand in hand.

Here are some remarkable achievements from Symbiotics’ journey so far:
👉 Over 8,200 investments supporting 605 companies across 99 countries
👉 Enabling the creation of 50 million jobs in underserved regions
👉 Mobilizing more than USD 10 billion to finance sustainable development initiatives

Congratulations to Symbiotics and its entire ecosystem – partners, clients, staff, colleagues, shareholders, and board members – for making this journey possible through your trust, dedication, and passion.

Discover the Key Social Finance Trends of 2024

We share the Key Trends in  Microfinance and Social Finance Sector of 2024! Our concise yet comprehensive report covers:

• Public sector engagement
• ESG for social economy
• Innovation
• Technology and finance

We’ve meticulously tracked and analyzed the novelties, practices, and discussions from practitioners, national sectors, and at the EU level. Don’t miss out on the best practices and new solutions that are defining this year’s crucial content.

European Microfinance Week in Luxembourg

Join 500+ thought leaders on 12-14 November 2025 for the key event of the financial inclusion sector gathering hundreds of top experts from all around the world.

Further information will be available in the coming months at www.e-mfp.eu

Let’s make 2025 more innovative, diverse, and greener!

2024: What a Year!

As 2025 is already underway, we take a moment to reflect on MFC’s incredible journey in 2024 and extend our heartfelt gratitude to our partners and friends for empowering communities across Europe and Central Asia through sustainable finance.

We wish you resilience and success in the face of challenges this year. Together, let’s make 2025 more innovative, diverse, and greener!

Here are some standout highlights from MFC’s 2024:

• 26th MFC Annual Conference in Krakow: Hosted 127 microfinance and social enterprise finance institutions, 12 microfinance national associations, 28 investors, 13 consultancies, 9 policymakers and regulators, and 5 IT and digital service providers from Europe and Central Asia.
• Social Finance Vibe Virtual Conference: Attracted 422 participants from over 70 countries during an impactful 2-day event.
• CEE Social Economy Forum in Vienna: For the first time, this forum gathered policymakers, ESF+ managing authorities, national promotional banks, microfinance and social finance providers, impact investors, and experts from the EC, EIB Group, and Council of Europe Development Bank. MFC proudly co-organized and played a pivotal role in this landmark event.
• SIFTA Success: A very productive year with 40 events organized under the Social Inclusive Finance Technical Assistance (SIFTA) program, including 20 webinars and workshops, 20 tailored services, and 970 participants.
• Transform Together Fund (TTF) Project: Partnered with Cerise+SPTF we granted 8 social finance organizations to support innovative projects in digital and green areas.
• Advocacy Milestones: Strong representation at key events, including the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks and Financiers’ Annual Conference in Ireland, and significant meetings with representatives of the European Commission (DG EMPL, DG NEAR, and DG ECFIN). These efforts, alongside partners like the European Microfinance Network and Social Economy Europe, furthered our mission for a fairer and more sustainable economic future.
• The Way to Business Program: Successfully completed, enabling female refugees from Ukraine to start businesses or restart their careers in Poland.
• Borrow Wisely and Microfinance for Youth Entrepreneurship Campaigns: Partnered with 19 microfinance organizations across 7 European markets, reaching over 1.5 million people through online and offline channels.
• Representation at Partner Conferences: MFC played a strong role at the MicroBalkans and Azerbaijan Microfinance Association events.
• European Microfinance Day Campaign: Culminated in Brussels with MFC’s representation by council members Martina Grigorova (SIS Credit, Bulgaria) and Elma Zukic (AMFI, Bosnia and Herzegovina), alongside Network and Partnership Manager, Pavol Kapsdorfer.
• European Microfinance Week: Delivered impactful sessions on financial inclusion for refugees, showcasing MFC’s expertise and network.
• Key Publications and Surveys: Released groundbreaking reports, including Microfinance in Europe: Survey Report (2023 Edition), Social Finance Trends 2024, Microfinance in the Caucasus and Central Asia: 2024 Edition, and Green Paper: Supporting Micro and Small Entrepreneurs for a Fair Green Transition.
• Green Leadership: MFC’s CEO, Katarzyna Pawlak, joined the Barcelona Action Circle on Post-growth Finance as an expert in sustainable finance and microfinance.
• Team Retreat: A reset and brainstorming session for the MFC team in Kowalewice.

2025: Let’s take small steps toward meaningful change, together!

#Microfinance #SocialEconomy #InclusiveFinance #SustainableDevelopment #MFC2024Highlights #BestMFCMoments #SIFTA

Happy Holiday Season

Wishing you light, love, and moments of relaxation during this holiday season. May the New Year bring a more inclusive, greener, and fairer world for all.

We look forward to achieving even greater milestones together in the coming year.

Happy Holidays and an Innovative New Year from all of us at the Microfinance Centre!

Capacity building needs and solutions for social finance providers in EU 27

This paper presents the work in progress of MFC and its partners in identifying capacity building needs of social finance providers and addressing them.

MFC aims at building capacity of members and partners for mission driven, sustainable microfinance, concerned with climate protection issues, fostering social and digital inclusion. Over the year 2024, MFC used its interactions with members and partners to map the needs of social finance providers and to identify viable solutions. It has been achieved through the following activities:

• Meetings, interviews, and emails exchange within the MFC Capacity Building Action Group, which gathered microfinance providers (MFPs), Social Enterprise Finance Providers (SEFPs), support organizations, associations and consultants providing services to MFPs and SEFPs.
• Technology Action Group, which discussed specifically the capacity building needs in digitalization
• Trends, Good Practice and Clients Needs Action Group provided inputs for the financial providers gaps related to providing training and advice to microentrepreneurs.
• Partnership Action Group, which provided inputs focused on understanding of the major trends and best practices influencing the work of MFC
• SIFTA Programme capacity building users, that provided their feedback during evaluation of the events they participated in.

Based on the above, MFC identified a wide range of capacity building services to be delivered to the sector within the next year. This is work in progress and it will be continued during 2025.

We group the needs into the following categories.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. 

Transformative role of AI and machine learning in lending

On December 3rd, HES FinTech and GiniMachine co-organized the Microfinance Centre Technology Action Group meeting for a thought-provoking discussion on the transformative role of AI and machine learning in lending.

🔵Ivan Kovalenko, CEO and Co-Founder of HES FinTech, shared strategic insights into the evolving lending landscape.
🔵Andre Kravchenko, SVP, Business Development & Global Partnerships at HES FinTech, explored how industry-level collaboration can bridge gaps in credit data.
🔵Tatyana Kovalenko, R&D lead at GiniMachine, and Mark Rudak, ML Product Owner at  GiniMachine, showcased the power of data-driven scoring, as well as outlined practical challenges of ML adoption, including benchmarking and data preparation.

GiniMachine and its partner Silk Data demonstrated in a joint business case how AI scoring and intelligent data extraction tools, when conceived together, form a comprehensive solution to real-world problems.

Nikolai Karelin, Head of ML/AI at SilkData, explained the process of data extraction, cleaning and transformation preceding the modeling stage.

Key takeaways:

• Beyond models: It’s not just about having a scoring model; understanding portfolio quality and identifying key feature weights are critical for driving informed decisions.
• Data synergy: Accessing broader, industry-level data unlocks valuable insights, especially for early stage MFIs in regions where credit bureaus are underdeveloped.
• Collaboration opportunities: GiniMachine’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for teams to experiment and validate scoring models, even without a dedicated data science team.

The discussion emphasized the importance of starting small and iterating. Exploring these technologies now ensures you stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry.

The next meeting on December 11th will dive into embedded finance for business lending, highlighting real-world integrations already making an impact in Bulgaria and beyond.

#FinTech #LendingInnovation #Collaboration #AI #HESFinTech #GiniMachine

SIFTA Workshops Across Europe: Advancing Inclusive Finance

In the latter half of 2024, as part of our role within the SIFTA (Social Inclusive Finance Technical Assistance Program), a collaboration with Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and the European Microfinance Network, Microfinance Centre has successfully organized local workshops for microfinance and social finance providers in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, and Poland.

These workshops addressed pivotal subjects influencing the future of inclusive finance, including:

• Instruments for Social Finance
• Addressing Over-Indebtedness
• Artificial Intelligence in Finance
• Legal Frameworks for Microfinance
• ESG Practices and Sustainability
• Market Development Strategies

A heartfelt thank you to all participants and experts for their invaluable contributions

#SocialFinance #Microfinance #InclusiveFinance #SustainableDevelopment #PeerLearning #SIFTA