JANUARY 12 TO 13, 2009, NEW YORK CITY, USA

In January, a socially-conscious investment conference organized annually by Foundation & Endowment Money Management, Money Management Letter, and the Social Investment Forum will be held at the Union League Club located at 38 East 37th Street in New York City.   This year’s theme is “ESG on the Ground: Enhancing Profitability through Sustainable Investing.”   The third such conference of its kind, the conference this year has been expanded to two full days and will include a half-day workshop entitled, “A Practical Guide to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI),” which will be led by the PRI Secretariat.  The conference is open to those who hold leadership positions anywhere along the spectrum of investment organizations, from hedge funds and private equity firms to public foundations and family offices.  Continue Reading »

C5, has postponed indefinitely its “European Summit on Global Microfinance Investments” that had been planned to begin March 2, 2009, in Geneva, Switzerland. No new date has been set. For more information you may email k.persson@CC5-Online.com, or call +44 (0) 20 7878 6888.

MARCH 19 TO MARCH 20, 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

Uniglobal Research, a business events firm for various industries in the financial sector, will host its second Annual Microfinance Forum in Spring of 2009 in Vienna, Austria. The conference will touch upon all of the following topics: how global trends and imbalances affect the microfinance industry; successful business models in low-income markets; including the world’s poor as investors, producers, sellers, and buyers; common standards for the microfinance industry; mobile banking for the poor; retail microfinance; and micro (life) insurance. The event has been billed to various groups, including: microfinance institutions (MFIs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), commercial banks, research institutions, technology providers, and other public sector organizations. Uniglobal Research hopes participants will learn about the current activities and future plans of international commercial banks with respect to microfinance, capture lessons from relevant project experiences, and gain unique perspectives on how to align social issues with corporate strategy. Continue Reading »

FEBRUARY 17 TO FEBRUARY 19, 2009, NAIROBI, KENYA

Aitec Africa, an event management and marketing firm with offices in Kenya and the UK, will hold a conference to discuss the banking and payment technologies available to the East African financial services sector.  Aitec Africa hopes that bank managers and customers will learn about the latest international developments in payment technologies, best practices in information technology (IT) project deployment, and current trends in customer service delivery.  The conference will be held over a three-day period at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.  Continue Reading »

JANUARY 26 TO JANUARY 27, 2009, BERLIN, GERMANY

The ChaBaLEU-Project, a collaborative partnership of ten business, public, and academic institutions from four EU member states, will host a discussion forum entitled, “Implementing the EU Microcredit Initiative – What can we learn from developing and transforming countries?”  ChaBaLEU, short for “Character-Based Lending,” works to ensure the continued development of microcredit services and products aimed at small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) within the EU-15.  The forum intends to create a space for entrepreneurs and development leaders to discuss whether microcredit can “function as a meaningful instrument of business development in the EU.”  Continue Reading »

What follows is an excerpt from Tim Harford’s piece “The Battle for the Soul of Microfinance,” which appeared in the Financial Times’ Weekend Reportage section on December 6, 2008.  Mr. Harford, a Senior Columnist at the Financial Times, has written an excellent introduction to the competing commerical and altruistic motivations behind microfinance–and the current disputes they have generated–that have come to dominate so much of the industry today.  The full piece also cites several interesting studies whose findings may affect microfinance institutions’ (MFIs) procedures for vetting micro-loan applicants or their manipulation of interest rates resulting from either profit-driven or philanthropic motives.  The full article is available online to those who have registered for free with the Financial Times. Continue Reading »

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), an organization of 21 countries on the Pacific Rim that focuses on trade, investment, and other regional economic considerations, held its annual Leaders Meeting in late November in Lima, Peru.  The leaders of several member countries pledged to continue financial support for the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the region as a way to combat the credit crisis and to shore up economic growth.  The summit was organized under the theme “A New Commitment to Asia-Pacific Development,” a phrase meant to inspire the reduction of the wealth gap between developing and developed nations.  Continue Reading »

Brigham Young University’s (BYU) Economic Self-Reliance Center (ESR Center) is an academic research center founded in 2003 with the “express purpose” of helping families pull themselves out of poverty and “become economically self-reliant.”  To achieve this mission, the ESR Center shares with low-income families abroad what it calls an “economic self-reliance model” (ESR model) through its network of over 100 partner organizations.  The center contends that microfinance practitioners can use the ESR model to assess which characteristics necessary for achieving self-reliance a family possesses, and which characteristics that family must work to find.  These characteristics include several “skills and abilities,” “attitudes and behaviors,” and “resources availabilities” that include intellectual capital, social capital, physical/financial capital, and human capital.  Center practitioners use the information gleaned from the model to make “interventions” to help “economically vulnerable” families.  It is unclear from the ESR’s website what these interventions entail, but it appears that they are meant to raise or create sustainable income streams for family members by spurring “microenterprise, microfranchising, enterprise education, and best business practices.”  The Center also explicitly states that it hopes to institute interventions that impact the greatest number of economically vulnerable families.  As of yet, the ESR Center does not seem to have a set of outcome measurement tools for measuring the impact of its programs on its families.   Continue Reading »

On November 20, CashNetUSA, a Chicago-based short-term online lender, announced that it will begin receiving its non-traditional credit data from the DataX Credit Reporting Agency (DataX), a Las Vegas-based data collection agency for the financial sector. DataX will collect and provide credit information to CashNetUSA on clients seeking micro-loans and other financial services. Although Microcapital typically covers only those newsworthy developments with an international scope, this new relationship between two American firms has been reported because of its potential spillover effects for international microfinance. Continue Reading »

‘In God We Trust’: A Qualitative Study of Church-Sponsored Microfinance at the Margins in Nicaragua
by Michael J. Pisani

A qualitative study of CARITAS Matagalpa was undertaken in May 2003. CARITAS Matagalpa is a large, self-sustaining microfinance institution that is located in central Nicaragua and affiliated with Catholic Relief Services. In-depth interviews with 36 microentrepreneurs, all clients of CARITAS Matagalpa, reveal that access to microfinance has enabled these entrepreneurs to start, expand, and develop their enterprises. These interviews also reveal that access to microfinance has also enhanced the life chances of the microentrepreneurs’ households. Additionally, multivariate statistical tests suggest the following: (1) Loan size is directly related to urban location and length of repayment period. (2) The degree of firm-level informality diminishes in urban areas and increases relative to the work experience of the microentrepreneur. (3) Income for self-employed microentrepreneurs is influenced by business sales volume, work experience, number of employees, and loan size.  Continue Reading »

JANUARY 21 TO JANUARY 23, 2009, PUDUCHERRY, INDIA

Pondicherry University’s Commerce Department will host an “International Conference on Microfinance” with support from various Indian agencies, including the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), and the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD). The conference will be held at the Department of Commerce in the School of Management of Pondicherry University in Puducherry, India.  University researchers, banking professionals, and representatives from non-governmental agencies (NGOs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs) are welcome to attend.  Continue Reading »

DECEMBER 4, 2008, NEW YORK CITY, USA

The New York chapter of Women Advancing Microfinance (WAM-NY), an international organization dedicated to advancing and supporting women in microfinance, will hold the next installment of its Voices from the Field series: “Microfinance in Israel: Supporting Bedouin Women.”  Chagit Rubinstein will speak about her experiences with two key players in Israeli microfinance—Koret Israel Economic Development Funds (KIEDF) and SAWA microfinance institution—from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at the Microsoft Center located at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 6^th Floor, Studio 54.  Ms. Rubinstein will discuss how and why SAWA has enabled Bedouin women to become micro-entrepreneurs, KIEDF’s challenges in Israel, and the future prospects for Israeli microfinance. Continue Reading »

Written by Arthur D. Little and based on the firm’s previous industry research, released on November 13, 2008 as a “Financial Services INSIGHT,” 4 pages, available on November 26, 2008 at: http://www.adl.com/reports.html?view=329.

Arthur D. Little (ADL), an international management consulting firm, released on November 13 a report entitled “Microfinance on the Rise,” which analyzes the current factors broadly affecting the demand and supply of microfinance and outlines the core operational components of a good microfinance practice. The report is an interesting analysis of the industry’s state of affairs and a strong prediction that microfinance is poised to become a new asset class for traditional investors.

Established in 1886, ADL was founded in Cambridge, Massachussetts, by two MIT chemists and has since grown to become largely a management consulting firm that currently holds the 33rd spot on Vault’s list of the most prestigious management consulting firms. Today, the company employs about 1,000 people in 20 countries, and in fiscal year 2006 the company brought in USD 239 million in revenues. Although ADL does not claim any unique contributions to microfinance, the organization holds at least partial responsibility for developing a number of modern innovations, including operations research, word processing, synthetic penicillin, LexisNexis, and NASDAQ.

What follows is a summary of the report: Continue Reading »

On November 18, the MasterCard Foundation, a private foundation in Toronto, Canada, and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), a Bangladeshi microfinance institution (MFI), targeted two million Ugandans with a USD 19.6 microfinance program.  The need for deeper, more mature microfinance markets in Uganda is strong, implies a recent Business Wire story.  The government made expanding financial services for the rural poor a “top priority” in a country where more than 37 percent of the population live on less than a dollar a day and 62 percent do not have access to financial services. Continue Reading »

Global Partnerships (GP), a Seattle-based non-profit organization that funds microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Latin America, recently announced the creation of its Microfinance Fund 2008 (MFF 2008), a USD 20 million microfinance investment fund intended to aid the rural poor.  Seeking a return of four to five percent on a six-year note, MFF 2008 will fund investments in several MFIs and other partner organizations in Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru.  The fund is closed to additional investors. Continue Reading »

On November 16, the Citi Foundation, a philanthropic foundation dedicated to economic development, and the Jordan River Foundation (JRF), a Jordanian non-profit organization (NGO) focused on female entrepreneurship, held the 2008 Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards ceremony for Jordan.  The two groups and the Jordanian government highlighted the active role that micro-credit plays in alleviating local poverty and honored individual micro-entrepeneurs, including ten women.  The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC) also announced new funding initiatives for the microfinance sector.  Continue Reading »

On November 7, Fransabank SAL, an international commercial bank active primarily in the Middle East, and Ameen, a Lebanese microfinance institution (MFI), created a new microfinance partnership to help small businesses in the Jbeil region of Lebanon.  The program will enable owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to expand their businesses by providing them with loans that range from USD 337 (LBP 500,000) to USD 2,023 (LBP 3,000,000) with credit facilities ranging from six months to 18 months.  Loan applicants can also avail of technical and administrative support services. Continue Reading »

Written by Gilberto M. Llanto and Ryu Fukui and based on secondary research carried out by the authors, released in July 2003 by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies as Discussion Paper No. 2003-11, 18 pages, available on November 16, 2008 at: http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/phddpaper/dp_5F2003-11.htm

Gilberto M. Llanto and Ryu Fukui describe the “emerging innovations” in microfinance observed through 2003 in Southeast Asian markets, innovations that made it possible for microfinance institutions (MFIs) to reach a greater number of poor households in a sustainable manner.  These innovations help reduce MFIs’ transaction costs and risks and enabled poor households to smooth their investment and consumption patterns.  While the paper also argues for government support of microfinance (p. 13-14), the rest of this paper wrap-up summarizes the nature and extent to which these three innovations have strengthened Southeast Asian microfinance. Continue Reading »