Posts Tagged ‘microcredit’
Posted on November 26, 2008 - by lincolnw
MasterCard Foundation and BRAC Announce 19.6m Program to Expand Financial Services
The MasterCard Foundation and BRAC announced today a $19.6 million program to expand financial services to the poor across Uganda, benefiting approximately 2 million people. This initiative will demonstrate for the first time the full potential of BRAC’s holistic microfinance approach to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods in Africa. Insights generated from this program will enable BRAC to accelerate its long-term plan to adapt this approach for other African countries.
“The MasterCard Foundation is working with innovators like BRAC to expand the access and reach of microfinance services to the poor, supporting their entrepreneurship so they can improve their own lives and communities,” said Reeta Roy, President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on November 25, 2008 - by lincolnw
“Microfinance is an Attractive Asset Class”
(Source: Al Bawaba)
Scheduled to take place at the Emirates Towers Hotel, the Symposium will bring together investors and microfinance institutions (MFIs) from the region for the first time ever, hence demonstrating the growing importance of microfinance in the Arab World and its emergence as an attractive asset class. Across the world, the $300 billion microfinance industry achieves average annual growth rates of 40% and investment returns of 25%…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on November 25, 2008 - by lincolnw
Realizing the Potential of Branchless Banking: Challenges Ahead
Being able to make payments conveniently and securely is an essential ingredient in modern life and commerce. It enables economic livelihoods and supports many social relationships (remittances between geographically split families and friends), communal support actions (e.g., joint buying of staples), and public welfare programs (payments to needy families). Yet most people and microenterprises in developing countries must rely on physical delivery of cash or actual goods to make payments. This imposes large costs and risks on those beyond the reach of modern payment networks.
The lucky few have more efficient means of exchange: checks, money orders, direct bank transfers, credit cards, debit cards, and so forth. All these cut down on the need to carry cash, making consumers and their money more secure. Even handling and exchanging cash is a lot easier: consumers have debit cards with which they can exchange electronic value for cash at any number of conveniently located automated teller machines (ATMs)…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on November 25, 2008 - by lincolnw
Overhead Cost, Makor Challenge of Microfinance Banks
Whatever has an advantage also has its disadvantage. This is a well known fact that has been established time-and-time, over-and-over again. The objective of establishing microfinance in Nigeria, which aims to help alleviate poverty through empowering the people by increasing their access to factors of production, especially credit, cannot be underestimated.
Microfinance is about providing financial services to the economically active population of the country who are traditionally not served by the conventional financial institutions.
Giving loans to small scale business operators who are spread out in different locations of the Nigerian environment may not exactly be a problem.
What however seems to be a predicament is the ability of these microfinance banks to monitor their customers in order to recoup their money…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on November 25, 2008 - by lincolnw
Pakistan: Telenor Acquires Major Stake in Tamir Microfinance Bank
Islamabad—Telenor Pakistan has entered into an agreement to acquire 51 per cent of the shares in Tameer Microfinance Bank (TMB) for a foreign direct investment (FDI) of USD 12.5 million (PKR 1 billion approximately) through a direct rights issue. The proceeds from the rights issue will be used to finance the further development of the bank. The transaction is subject to full regulatory approval.
“The acquisition of 51 per cent of the shares in Tameer Microfinance Bank (TMB) is part of our strategy to offer financial services in Pakistan,” said Jon Eddy Abdullah, CEO of Telenor Pakistan. “We are pleased with the deal we have entered. Telenor is a solid partner for further growth, and we have a common view about how financial and telecommunication sectors together can improve customer offerings by combining services,” said Nadeem Hussain, President and Chief Executive Officer Tameer Bank. Telenor Pakistan is a 100% subsidiary of Telenor Group and a leading mobile operator in Pakistan with more than 18 million subscribers. Telenor Pakistan has 2500 employees…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on November 14, 2008 - by James
India: SKS Raises 75m USD in Fourth Round…
The round is led by Sandstone Capital, an India focused hedge fund, and is largest investment in an MFI.
In the largest microfinance deal in the world, Hyderabad based SKS Microfinance has raised Rs 366 crore or $75 million from private equity investors. This is fourth round of fund raising by SKS. Sandstone Capital, an India focused hedge fund with $1 billion capital under management, has led the deal, while the other investors in this round include SVB India Capital and Kismet Capital.
This is the largest investment in a micro finance institution anywhere in the world, said SKS Microfinance founder CEO Vikram Akula. Since October last year the MFI has raised Rs 563 crore in three rounds of funding.
“We are going to be using these funds to leverage access to commercial finance and scale of our outreach in next two years,” said Akula. SKS currently has 1,400 branches with 12,000 employees, and Akula plans to double that in the next two years. He also said that microfinance remains largely unaffected from the global economic meltdown… [click here to read the rest of this article...]
Posted on November 10, 2008 - by lincolnw
Malaysia: BNM launches RM200m fund for micro enterprises
KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has launched a RM200 million Micro Enterprise Fund to increase access to micro financing for micro enterprises with viable businesses, in this current more challenging business environment.
“Given that a significant percentage of SMEs in Malaysia are micro enterprises, adequate access to financing for this segment of businesses is vital so as to enable them to contribute to the economic development of the nation,” the central bank said in a statement yesterday.
The increased access to micro financing facility is part of several pre-emptive measures announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to boost the economy.
Apart from that, the government had also allocated a RM100 million revolving capital for the urban micro financing revolving programme, which will come under Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia. Since its launch early this year, the programme has lent out over RM500,000 to nearly 200 borrowers…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on November 3, 2008 - by lincolnw
Philippines: Ayala’s create RP’s 1st mobile microfinance bank
The Ayala Group has created the country’s first mobile microfinance bank. In partnership with Ayala Corp., Bank of the Philippine Islands and Globe Telecom, the new mobile facility will be called Pilipinas Savings Bank.
Capitalized at 500M, BPI and Globe will have an equal stake of 40 percent while Ayala Corp. will own 20 percent of the bank.
Ayala Corp. general counsel Renato Marzan said the venture will extend wholesale microfinance loans to microfinance institutions and other microfinance products in the future, and will use mobile technology to deliver financial services and expand its retail client base…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on November 3, 2008 - by lincolnw
Indian MFIs face challenge of global meltdown
Financing for the poor is getting more frugal now with microfinance institutions facing the heat of the global financial meltdown. There has been a virtual halt in fresh disbursements to MFIs by banks and financial institutions coupled with over 200 basis points hike in interest rate. It does not end at credit squeeze alone. Banks are also asking for personal guarantees of directors of MFIs.
A few banks have hiked the security margins from 10% to 25% over the loan amount sanctioned to banks. As a result, MFIs are unable to use even sanctioned funds. According to sector trackers, MFI sector may have trouble raising loans till January as banks will try to complete their priority sector lending targets more aggressively only in the last quarter of the fiscal…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on October 31, 2008 - by lincolnw
Microfinance draws interest
With a huge base of borrowers and emphasis on timely repayments, microfinance is relatively insulated from defaults…
Posted on October 31, 2008 - by lincolnw
Nigeria: Microfinance Inter-Bank Money Market Takes Off
There are strong indications that the proposed Microfinance Inter-bank money market will take off by the end of this year.
It would be recalled that Financial Vanguard exclusively reported that some Microfinance Banks in the country have commenced moves to set up an inter-bank money market for the sub-sector.ket includes the five discount houses.
However, other financial institutions like micro-finance banks and primary mortgage institutions (PMIs) cannot participate in the market because they do not have direct access to the clearing house of the Central Bank of Nigeria hence the decision of microfinance banks to create their own inter-bank money market…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on October 31, 2008 - by lincolnw
Microfinance Empowering Egyptian Women
Dr. Lee emphasized that he was not a historian and that he preferred to take an “anti-chronological” approach and explore the ideologies and central issues then apply it to history…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on October 29, 2008 - by lincolnw
Cambodia:First credit bureau slated to open
With the rapid expansion of public borrowing and the global credit crisis threatening banks around the world, regulators are planning Cambodia’s first credit bureau to link the country into a national financial database. Authorities hope the new system will bring the country’s fast-growing borrowing into the regulatory fold and protect the market from runaway debt. The system would record personal financial information and allow institutions to assess personal credit risk, said the International Finance Corp (IFC)…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on October 29, 2008 - by lincolnw
Global Economy Tests African Microcredit Channels
Amid growing signs that the global economy is worsening, the White House yesterday extended an invitation to developing countries to attend a summit next month in Washington with leaders of the world’s wealthy economies.Faced with rising food and fuel prices, some of Africa’s poorest nations are struggling to lower earlier projections of economic growth by focusing on how to satisfy the basic day-to-day needs of their citizens. One avenue for attracting investment needed to keep capital flowing in to local African businesses and public works is the practice of microfinance, or supplying credit to the poor at agreed-to, flexible rates which they can afford to pay back in an acceptable time frame.But the director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Sam Daley-Harris says that tightening pressures are being felt even in low-end borrowing circles and that such small but essential programs that can make a difference for Africans facing dire poverty are also feeling the effects of the global financial pinch…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on October 27, 2008 - by lincolnw
Schwab Charitable Reports Increased Granting Despite Credit Crisis
SAN FRANCISCO (Business Wire EON/PRWEB ) October 21, 2008 — Schwab Charitable, one of the country’s largest and fastest growing national donor-advised funds with 12,000 donors and nearly $2 billion in assets, announced today that grants to charities during the third quarter of 2008 were up 12 percent from 2007 levels. The increased giving, which comes as turmoil on Wall Street has cut contributions to nonprofits nationwide, demonstrates one of the most compelling features of donor-advised funds—namely their capacity to pool charitable assets and create “charitable reserves” that can be tapped during economic downturns.
“During good times, our donors have set aside significant charitable dollars, and now are able to tap those funds when they are needed most,” said Schwab Charitable President Kim Wright-Violich. “It demonstrates how donor-advised funds can help people go beyond ‘checkbook charity’ and become more strategic citizen philanthropists.”{Click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on October 27, 2008 - by lincolnw
MIV Survey 2008 - High growth and improving returns for microfinance funds
WASHINGTON, DC. October 3, 2008 – Microfinance, with its focus on providing financial services to the world poor is increasingly of interest to socially responsible investors. Contrary to sub-prime, microfinance is a low credit risk, high transaction cost business with robust earning records.
Microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) are private investment funds that play an increasingly important financial intermediation role between foreign investors and microfinance institutions (MFIs). A new CGAP survey looks at evolving opportunities in microfinance for the investor community…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on October 24, 2008 - by lincolnw
Upcoming Event: European Microfinance Week, Nov. 14
European Microfinance Week 2008 will be held in Luxembourg 12th - 14th November. The theme for this year’s meeting is ‘Frontier Issues in Microfinance - opportunities and challenges for European actors‘. We are requesting members to propose topics in addition to coordinators and speakers for the different sessions. Preference will be given to workshops that emphasise collaboration between e-MFP members and speakers from developing countries…{click this link to read more about this event}
Posted on October 24, 2008 - by lincolnw
Microfinance investor institutions signed on to the Client Protection Principles
The following 34 microfinance investor institutions have signed on to the Client Protection Principles, a microfinance industry-wide initiative that encourages providers to ensure that low-income clients are treated fairly and protected from potentially harmful financial products. The Principles are distilled from the path-breaking work of microfinance institutions, international networks and national microfinance associations to develop pro-consumer codes of conduct and practices. While there is little evidence of substantial problems with regard to clients in the microfinance sector, these Principles represent a proactive effort to define minimum standards to safeguard the interests of vulnerable clients.
These early signatories have committed to a process to translate the Principles into standards, policies, and practices appropriate for different types of microfinance clients, products, providers, and country contexts. By doing so, these institutions commit to incorporate the Principles into their investment selection and oversight processes. While it is microfinance providers themselves that are in a position to apply the Principles, investors can encourage compliance and provide positive incentives…{click this link to read the rest of this article}
Posted on October 24, 2008 - by lincolnw
Opportunity International Launches OptINnow(TM)
OAK BROOK, Ill., Oct 21, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Opportunity International, one of the world’s largest and fastest growing microfinance organizations, today announced the launch of OptINnow(TM), a new initiative in the fight against global poverty. OptINnow connects people who want to make a difference with the working poor around the world who need small business loans to lift themselves out of poverty…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on October 24, 2008 - by lincolnw
Remittances to Latin America Decline as Global Economy Sours
The amount of money sent home to families in Latin American countries by relatives living abroad is projected to grow by its slowest rate on record this year, according to a report to be released today by the Washington bank that tracks such transfers.
A slowdown would not only potentially exacerbate poverty in home countries but is also an indication of the economic troubles facing Latin American immigrants in the United States and elsewhere, according to the Inter-American Development Bank…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
