Banking for Development
Who we are
We are a management consulting company. We build client-centric, data-driven, and innovative solutions.
What we do
We offer financial consultancy to banks and microfinance institutions in emerging markets.
Why we do it
We strive to allow both the institutions we work with and their clients to flourish.
Established in 2003...
BFC provides advisory services including but not limited to; risk management, data-driven solutions, staff capacity building, MSME and Agricultural Lending, Access to Finance, Digital Finance and FinTech, and Learning Solutions for financial institutions from developing countries. This includes Eastern Europe; Balkans; Central, South and South East Asia; MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa.
BFC is driven to be a leader in delivering successful development banking consulting services and so provides effective project management, highly qualified consultants and leads meaningful partnerships. This coupled with first-rate local expertise and our hardworking team that is dedicated to delivering excellence means BFC has become a pioneer in microfinance, lending digitalisation and value chain finance.
BFC is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, with local representative offices in Georgia, Kenya, Moldova, Nepal, and Ukraine, as well as project offices in Kyrgyzstan and Serbia.
Meet the Team
BFC’s philosophy for development includes combining international expertise with first-rate local knowledge in order to tailor our solutions to each specific context and ensure the best possible results.
At BFC we believe employees are indispensable assets that make our business the success it is.
Michael Kortenbusch
Managing Director
Peter Hauser
Senior Bank Advisor
Javier Fargas
Senior Bank Advisor
Dr Marina Kortenbusch
Co-founder & Managing Partner
Cristina Cebotari
Business Development Manager
Evelina Dubceac
Senior Project Manager
They Trust Us! Join Them
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The World Bank
“World Bank contracted Business & Finance Consulting to carry out a gap analysis in Bangladesh and Pakistan in 2006. The main objective was to identify potential for increasing the access to finance of SMEs in local banks. We have been extremely satisfied with BFC’s work as their team is very competent, BFC combines serious hands-on project experience (i.e. they actually have helped banks/MFIs increase their outreach with tangible results), rigorous analytical skills and a very refreshing openness to trying new approaches, while not compromising on the key tenets of small business lending. It is the latter, I believe, that makes BFC so client oriented.
In conclusion, it has been a real pleasure to work with BFC and I would recommend them wholeheartedly.”
Aurora Ferrari
Private and Financial Sector
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
The World Bank -
KfW Entwicklungsbank
“A very satisfactorily and well structured final report. Mr. Kortenbusch and his colleagues have produced high quality and professional work on time. After the assignment, BFC has always been responsive to follow up questions.”
Stefan W. Hirche
Project Manager, Sector and Policy
KfW Entwicklungsbank -
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
“BFC’s contribution to the success of TFP, which has grown exponentially and won two industry awards in 2010, including “Best Development Bank in Trade”, has been important. We have found BFC professional, reliable, and flexible when required and the quality of their work has been good.”
Steven Beck
Head of Trade Finance
Asian Development Bank (ADB) -
Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank (OeEB)
“OeEB has been very pleased with BFC’s performance on this project. Their research team led by Peter Hauser presented a thoroughly researched and comprehensive final report in time with clear conclusions and reasonable recommendations which have helped us to define OeEB’s future strategy for the Caucasus. We look forward to continue working with BFC again in the future.”
Susanne Wegl
Manager Advisory Programmes
Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank -
Banca Intesa a.d.
“BFC’s APS, with its variety of built-in and customized reports, provides us effective control over sales force results and efficiency, operational activities, and decision-making statistics. Moreover, we are now in a position to collect and store all financial and non-financial data for a challenging client group. A huge and valuable database was already collected within one year of using BFC’s APS.”
Maja Andonov
Head of Small Business Client Department
Banca Intesa a.d. Beograd (Serbia) -
Banca Intesa a.d.
“With BFC’s APS we have optimized our decision-making process, reshaping it and easily moving from a fully centralized model to semi-centralized. After implementing BFC’s APS within our standard decision-making process, we managed to reduce processing time by 30%. With partial decentralization of the process through BFC’s APS we expect to reduce it by 50%.”
Djordje Radulović
Head of Agriculture Sales Management Office
Banca Intesa a.d. Beograd (Serbia) -
JSC MFO Crystal
“The Program conducted by BFC, was an excellent example of how theoretical knowledge and practical experience can be combined effectively to achieve impressive outcomes. Crystal greatly benefited from both sharing experiences with the other MFI as well as from intensive involvement of our management team in the Program. As a result, we now have a professional, high quality strategy document alongside a relevant action plan for the next five years. It was a great pleasure for us to work closely with the BFCteam and we highly appreciate their support and cooperation during the Program.”
Malkhaz Dzadzua
Crystal Chief Executive Officer
JSC MFO Crystal, Georgia
BFC also works directly with private sector clients, offering tailored solutions for each client’s situation and needs.
Let’s have a conversation about how we can work together.