IDLC Finance
IDLC started financing small and medium-sized enterprises in 2006 with six employees based out of a dedicated SME branch in the Bogra District of northern Bangladesh. The firm has grown to include a network of 28 SME branches and 442 staff, and contributes 37% of IDLC’s total loan portfolio.
The country’s central bank, Bangladesh Bank, showed its confidence in IDLC by assigning more than half of the non-bank financial sector disbursement target for government-subsidized loans to IDLC last year. IDLC’s SME team disbursed the entire $35.3 million within 5 months.
Despite the economic slowdown and uncertainty worldwide due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as a three-month lockdown in Bangladesh, IDLC’s portfolio grew an impressive 7.4% year on year, as of December 2020, and it extended loans worth $180 million.
In October, IDLC lent $29.1 million to 1,026 clients, setting a new record for lending in a single month by the SME division. It broke the record the following month, lending $33.5 million to 1,226 borrowers. At the end of 2020, its SME portfolio stood at $396 million.
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