JOBS’s key specialty of policy activity centers on access to credit by SMEs. In a country where many micro-enterprises have moderately simple entrance to credit through micro finance, SMEs face greater hurdles, because they are too large to qualify for micro finance loans but lack the collateral that commercial banks require. As a result, the Project, with the help of local and international experts, has drafted the proposed Secured Transaction Act, which is currently being reviewed by the government. This Act, if adopted, will place a strong legal basis for lending against movable assets. The following links will lead you to some publications on Secured Transaction Act.

• Secured Transaction Act

• STA Presentation
  Allen Welsh

• Secured Lending in Bangladesh
  June 2001

• Secured Credit for Jobs and Economic Growth
  Allen Welsh - November 2000

• Secured Finance for SMEs in Bangladesh
  Patrick Meagher - June 1998

• Expanding Business Credit Using Movable Property as Collateral
  By Allen Welsh International Consultant Secured Finance Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector (IRIS) University of Maryland, College Park, USA

• Executive Summary Purposes and Provisions of the Proposed Act on the Use of Movable Property to Secure Obligations