KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 (Bernama) -- The creation of a boutique and community bank can cater for the financing needs of small and medium enterprises (SME), says SME Corporation Malaysia Chief Executive Officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim.

She was commenting on a proposal by the Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim who suggested on Thursday that the state government set up its own bank to provide services to the people, including disbursing housing loans.

Proposing that the bank be named 'Bank of Johor', he said it can also provide housing loans and finance development projects.

"The idea is good especially in addressing the difficulty of obtaining financing for SMEs," she told reporters after launching a book titled, "Illustrative Malaysian Private Entities Reporting Standards (MPERS) Financial Statement With Commentaries" here Friday.

However, she said bank financing was not the only option for SMEs to obtain financing as there were other non-bank financing available such as crowd funding, private equity financing, venture capital and angel investors.

She said with such options available, SMEs should grab the opportunities to search for other sources if they fail to obtain bank financing.

The book, launched following the introduction of the MPERS framework on Jan 1, is tailor-made for private entities.

The framework enabled private entities to bring their financial reporting to be in tandem with current global financial reporting standards.

-- BERNAMA