Kosovo Business Finance Project
The Kosovo Business Finance Project (KBF) was designed to establish a fully functioning, full-service bank in Kosovo, with a specific target market of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Throughout the project, the project team provided qualified banking and micro and SME personnel with strong technical knowledge and a clear understanding of local financial services in Kosovo to integrate micro-lending techniques into the KBF Project. This included inputs into the credit process, local staff training programs, and loan program documents. In addition, the team provided important inputs on bank regulation and supervision, risk management, and treasury functions (cash flow and asset/liability management). This was particularly important during the KBF bank application process, where the team provided key information for the bank charter application.
As a part of the project activities, AECOM International Development contributed significantly to securing the bank's charter and license, as well as to preparing the bank's deposit mobilization strategies and to establishing a loan production unit. Our experts had developed and submitted the KBF's bank charter application and received preliminary approval, developed the bank's business plan, and compiled a list of prerequisites needed to obtain final approval for opening the bank, whose major clients were to be SMEs. Our activities included evaluation of potential competition from established banks in Kosovo, exploration of bank branching opportunities, development of a marketing strategy, and formulation and implementation of a deposit mobilization strategy.
The team conducted a series of workshops to implement the main pillars of micro and small lending technologies and the strategies that support them. Topics covered major components of the credit manual involving loan terms and conditions (loan recipients, amounts, terms, guarantees, etc.) loan process (loan promotion, application, analysis, and disbursement), loan recovery, and incentive systems. The workshops also dealt with strategies for loan administration, management information systems, and control. We produced a Credit Manual to provide a step-by-step guide to credit application and delivery. Using the Credit Manual, the project team had provided both formal microfinance training sessions and informal on-the-job training for loan officers, supervisors, and loan managers, among others, on technical issues related to micro, small, and medium enterprise lending in accordance with the policies it discussed.
In addition, AECOM International Development was responsible for the implementation of microenterprise lending techniques, was able to demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques, and was asked to devote substantially more time to the project than was originally planned.
