K&A takes part in the 3rd annual Central Asian Microfinance Forum in Almaty

K&A Partner Alexander Ahn took part in the 3rd annual Central Asian Microfinance Forum on "Strengthening Social Impact in a Changing Business Environment" held in Almaty on November 7-8, 2013. The Forum was organized by UNIGLOBAL (Czech Republic) and Business & Finance Consulting (Switzerland).

Key players in the Central Asian microfinance sector were invited to the Forum, where they had a chance to familiarize themselves with the recent legal developments related to increased regulation of the sector by national banks, including due to growing imbalance between corporate social responsibility and profit-making, searching for new opportunities, expanding geographic coverage and investment portfolio, and increasing the range of offered credit products.

It is noted that with the development of IT technologies and spread of the Internet and smartphones at regional and global levels, financial institutions have an interest in establishing mobile/non-branch banking network, which will facilitate a tenfold increase in the amount of financial and banking services offered to the "mobile" population and thereby reduce operating costs of financial institutions.