Regional—Financial Services Group (FSG Plus)

British International Investment (BII)—formerly CDC Group—is the U.K. Government’s development finance institution, supporting the growth of private businesses in Africa and South Asia.

FSG Plus supports BII in addressing two pressing priorities—i) inclusion and ii) climate change and environmental sustainability—by catalyzing sustainable practice change in financial institutions. It does this through:

• Support to BII’s FSG investees.
• Design and delivery of research and events to promote shared learning.

The Facility promotes sustained practice changes in financial services providers leading to improvements in the relevance, quality, affordability, and/or accessibility of financial services for target populations, green sectors, and/or small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Through generated evidence and focused assistance, the Facility helps BII investees demonstrate the business case for financial services that would lead to a knock-on effect on other financial service providers in these markets that more visibly support BII’s impact priorities.

Sample Activities

• Co-creating concept notes with BII’s FSG and its financial institution investees, designing technical assistance projects.
• Supporting financial service providers to develop new financial products according to “best fit”—tailored to the local market context and the needs of the most vulnerable households, smallholder farmers, and SMEs. These products will also promote climate risk management along the pillars of the Task Force on Climate Finance Disclosure, and climate finance and upgrade environmental, social, and governance standards.
• Ensure a diverse and balanced portfolio of technical assistance projects, and use feedback back loops to maximize the synergies between the projects.
• Leverage research findings to share learnings with the broader financial service providers market.
• Select, contract, and manage the performance of technical assistance providers.