China’s pilot micro credit program Wuyuan County Rural Credit Union received ISO 9001:2000 certification. This credit union provides micro loans to farmers in Wuyuan County in China’s eastern Jiangxi Province. Continue Reading »

Written by Dr. Jairo Morales-Nieto, Executive Director of local economic development consultants InterAfrica Corporate Ltd, this 10-page discussion on the necessary steps to transition from local to global microfinance markets was published in January 2008. Dr. Morales-Nieto asserts that rigorous filters and conditions must be observed by all players for microfinance to successfully enter into global financial markets. The full-version of the paper is available here. Continue Reading »

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a leading business publication, interviewed Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, in an article titled “Muhammad Yunus: Subprime Lender”. The article covered Mr. Yunus’ entrance into U.S.’s microcredit market and his approach to credit lending. Continue Reading »

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will subsidize USD 405,000 of a Standard & Poor’s (S&P) project to develop a globally accepted rating system of microfinance institutions (MFIs). S&P is a rating service and a division of McGraw-Hill Companies. The actual funding will be by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a fund administered by the IDB to encourage private sector development of micro-enterprise in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

The stated goal and rationale of this project is to increase capital flow to micro-banks. However, with MIF’s public money subsidizing a company with over USD 1 billion in annual profits, such justification is thin. Top micro-banks do not suffer from too little investment, but rather there is now far too much money chasing too few micro-banks.  Has the IDB gotten it exactly wrong? Continue Reading »

MicroCapital will review the conclusions from last year’s conference in preparation for the upcoming third annual Microfinance Cracking the Capital Markets conference in May, 2008. The conference was summarized in a 16-page publication written by Rekha Reddy and is part of ACCION’s InSight series, available here. The conference was hosted by ACCION International and sponsored by Credit Suisse. ACCION is a private, non-profit microfinance organization founded in 1961 that specializes in global micro-enterprise loans, business training, and other financial services. Continue Reading »

Philippine government has directed microfinance lending agencies to look into the possibility of lowering interest rates to micro and small businesses. The government believes this will make microfinance more attractive and increase activity within the sector. The directive came from Cerge Remonde, the oversight official for the government’s micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) program, but is not an obligation nor did it specify if or when it would require MFIs to do so. Continue Reading »

Nearly one year since the well-publicized and successful IPO of Banco Compartamos, its stock has not maintained its initial and sizable gains. Compartamos is Mexico’s largest microfinance bank, the first “home-grown” microfinance institution to complete an IPO, and the continued subject of debate within the microfinance industry. Continue Reading »

Starting in September, demand by would-be lenders repeatedly outstripped supply of microloan requests at Kiva.org’s website. Kiva.org is a non-profit organization whose website allows individuals to connect and provide microloans to micro entrepreneurs in the developing world. Particularly with the holiday season, there have been periods when every loan request on Kiva has been filled, leaving potential investors visiting the site dumbstruck. Continue Reading »

One Hen, a new children’s book, attempts to illuminate the poverty-reducing strategy of microfinance to children. More specifically, the book focuses on microcredit, a lending system for the poor who lack access to conventional banking. One Hen is written by Katie Smith Milway and published by A&C Black Publishers, Ltd. Continue Reading »

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a multilateral finance institution, approved a USD 1.9 million grant through its autonomous Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF). The grant is part of MIF’s Caribbean Microfinance Capacity-Building Project and will benefit the English-speaking Caribbean. This includes Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and the Organization of the Easter Caribbean states (OECS).

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