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Stanbic Bank Ghana, a member of the Standard Bank Group, has resonated its customer-centric values. The passion for excellence spans through a history of SME Quick Loans to Trader Pac, which is a business to human, solution-oriented portfolio of trader funding facilities. Nurturing the passion to better cushion SME operators in the country, the bank started off with the SME Quick Loan (SQL) within the SME trader market. Head of SME Banking at Stanbic Bank Ghana, Stanislaus Deh, recounted the history of the SME space. �About 90% of Ghanaians do business along these lines. In the bank�s desire to help this group of people, the bank realised that these target groups do not have collaterals though they do very well in their businesses, said Stanislaus Deh. �The bank therefore employed psychometric tools to test their business acumen, psychological profile, honesty, and basically to say the right people have been identified. The bank then started offering the SME Quick Loans to support the trader market�. Currently, the bank has expanded its product line with the Stanbic Trader Pac. It offers more convenient end-to-end financial solutions including current accounts, savings accounts, trade transactions, FX transactions, business banking, overdrafts, vehicle access financing, and many more within the SME regiment. Stanbic bank is the only bank within the industry which has dedicated a chunk of its resources in terms of personnel to SME financing. To prove this, there are about 130 staff dedicated to the SME sector of the bank. A good number of these staff are on the ground working hand-in-hand with the customers. The bank�s operational team takes a test to check the risk levels so that particular and specific amounts can be given out to customers. The initial amount for loans which was GH₵25,000 has now been pushed to GH₵60,000. The bank organizes free quarterly training and orientations for customers with their relationship managers to help them better understand their businesses as well as how they can expand their businesses with the right loan facility. Presently, over 18,000 people have opened new accounts with the bank through the Trader Pac initiative. Owing to the success story, Stanislaus disclosed that, �The bank understood the needs of the customers. We have been able to carry a good number of them along in growth which has been mutually beneficial. The bank has also taken measures to protect customers and the bank; and most importantly maintained a fruitful relationship�. He added that greater brands and businesses started from the scratch. The bank has identified that it is the younger businesses that need to grow to support the economy of the country therefore the bank is willing to spend some money on customers to grow their businesses, hence the focus on the trader markets. Stanbic�s Trader Pac as 2013 CIMG Product of the Year Award was attributed to the bank�s demonstration of sustainability of its portfolio of financial solutions over time. �Measures are strongly and actively in place. We have tried and tested it before and we know it�s sustainable,� said the Head of SME Banking. We know competition is there and while they try to catch up with us we�ll be long gone. There�s no way competition will catch up with us within this space.� New customers of the bank are eligible to access the convenient repertoire of financial products under the Stanbic Trader Pac six months after enrolment. Meanwhile SME operators who are already running SME product facilities with other banks can enjoy same outrightly with a simple requirement of their account statement. The Stanbic CSPs (Cash Service Points) at Madina, Makola, Kasoa and Sumae have been dedicated to SMEs which is mainly for cash deposits and collection, while the Business Solution Consultants move through the markets with Ipads to create instant account numbers at the convenience of the traders in the markets. Mr. Deh urged customers to watch out for more exciting packages from the bank within this last quarter of 2014 and the year ahead.