What is E-Finance

The lack of access to finance is hindering growth and development to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), particularly in developing countries. Access to finance can be facilitated by ICT and e-finance, which can reduce the cost of financial services and increase access to international markets. However, in spite of the potential benefits of e-finance, developing countries have been reported to be lagging behind in terms of e-finance adoption as compared with developed nations. The reason for non-adoption could be due to barriers such as lack of ICT infrastructure, data privacy and security concerns. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the extent of understanding and adoption of e-finance by SMEs. A survey of SMEs in two developing countries, South Africa and Bangladesh, was conducted. The results of the survey revealed that access to financial products and services was the highest rated benefit of e-finance to respondent SMEs, whereas regulatory environment and policy was the highest rated barrier.