With institutional investors looking to amend their charters to allow private share purchases, I believe that the private company marketplace will start showing significant momentum in the first half of 2013. I foresee the rapid emergence of private shares desks within conventional financial firms. Continue Reading »

Tomas Miller of the US-based Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) was quoted recently by the Bahamian newspaper The Nassau Gaurdian as saying that, “Based on our definition of a microfinance institution, The Bahamas doesn’t really have that yet.” The interview was precipitated by the Third Caribbean Microfinance Forum, which was held recently in the Bahamas by the Caribbean Microfinance Capacity-building project, which is funded by MIF, the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank and the EU’s European Commission. Continue Reading »

The author, David Satterthwaite, is Oxfam America’s head of micro-insurance and risk management and founder of MicroCapital.org. Despite the current severe drought in East Africa and resultant famine in Somalia, northern Ethiopia has thus far escaped this year’s drought. The region has, however, been devastated by lack of rainfall in the past and Satterthwaite’s program was designed to help local farmers overcome periods of severe drought. His work is featured in a World Food Day half-hour documentary special report from ViewChange and Oxfam: “ViewChange: Africa’s Last Famine,” which is available at the end of this post.

I woke up that day in Addis Ababa. It was a morning that I’ve come to think of as typical there: it was sunny, the air was cool with the smell of wood smoke, and slow-moving donkeys shared the city streets with blue taxis. I had been on the job at Oxfam for about a month. A group of us – a number of my Ethiopian colleagues and I – were scheduled to meet with the CEO of Nyala Insurance to discuss a contract to provide weather insurance to farmers in northern Ethiopia. Continue Reading »

Thank you to the Munich Re Foundation and the Microinsurance Network for sharing with MicroCapital their interview with Howard Bolnick, Chair of the International Actuarial Association’s (IAI’s) Working Group on Microinsurance, as a lead up to the Seventh International Microinsurance Conference, November 8 – November 10, 2011, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1. How did you become involved in microinsurance and what is your current role?

I became involved in microinsurance through my active role in the International Actuarial Association (IAA), which represents the actuarial profession in matters of interest to the worldwide profession. Continue Reading »

In many developing countries, the everyday well-being of the poor is profoundly tied to farming. In rural Ghana, where Chris Udry runs his Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty (CFSP) research project, this is especially true. Continue Reading »

Byblos Bank, a Lebanese institution with operations in nine countries, has cited an unspecified report from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) as arguing that the continued growth of the microfinance sector in Lebanon is hindered by inappropriate governmental regulation and a lack of reliable data on borrowers. Continue Reading »

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia recently announced the launch of a new microcredit program to help Indonesian migrant workers secure overseas employment and finance their departure process, which involves arranging their legal documents, having medical checkups, receiving training and obtaining competency certificates. Continue Reading »

BlueOrchard Finance SA, a subsidiary of Switzerland-based commercial microfinance intermediary BlueOrchard, recently reported to MicroCapital the following two loans it made to Cambodian microfinance institutions (MFIs): Continue Reading »

Wall’s Street Advisor Services (WSAS), a US-based consultancy, has released a report, “Listed Microfinance Institutions’ Shareholder Valuations and Their Stocks’ Results”, which considers how publicly-traded shares of microfinance institutions (MFIs) are valued. Continue Reading »

The financial regulator of Colombia, Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia, has reported that six local and foreign firms are applying to offer banking services in the country, including an unspecified number that would offer microfinance. Continue Reading »

The US-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (AID) have announced a USD 15 million fund to encourage companies to initiate mobile financial services in Haiti. Continue Reading »

Global Partnerships, a US-based microfinance investment firm, held a forum on June 8 in Bellevue, Washington, that covered the organization’s efforts to reduce poverty in Latin America while offering investors a fixed rate of return. Continue Reading »

Pakistan?s Microfinance Credit Information Bureau (MF-CIB) has been launched as a joint venture by the Pakistan Microfinance Network, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Citi Foundation and the State Bank of Pakistan. Continue Reading »

CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), an independent policy and research center housed at the World Bank Group, recently published a technical guide entitled “Performance-Based Agreements: Incorporating Performance-Based Elements into Standard Loan and Grant Agreements”. Continue Reading »

MicroCapital: What is your personal motivation for investing in microfinance?

Rick Beckett: I spent the first 20 years of my career in the private sector. My motivation is really rooted in a couple things: one is I want to live in a world where everybody is treated like they matter, and for me that’s a lot about people having the opportunity to earn a living and provide for their families. We don’t live in that kind of a world. I do the work I do at Global Partnerships and Direct Relief and elsewhere because I’m interested in how we can use market solutions to advance the common good. I’m intrigued by the opportunity to change investment markets to incorporate more social motivations. I’m intrigued by the evolution of enterprises and products to incorporate more of the common good, both in terms of global poverty and global health issues as well as environmental issues. So it’s a combination of wanting to see a different world and intrigue in how the market mechanisms are evolving to advance that. So it’s a pretty interesting place to be in right now.

MC: You have said previously that “All microfinance is not created equal.” How you make such distinctions?

Continue Reading »

Thank you to the Microinsurance Network for permission to reprint its recent interview with Dirk Reinhard, instigator of the International Microinsurance Conferences:

In light of the upcoming 6th International Microinsurance Conference taking place between 9-11 November in Manila, Philippines, Dirk Reinhard, Vice Chairman of the Munich Re Foundation and member of the Executive Committee of the Microinsurance Network, answers a few questions regarding the past, present and future of this pioneering conference.

Microinsurance Network: How did the first International Microinsurance Conference come about in Munich? What were the aims of this conference and who were behind it?

Dirk Reinhard: Munich Re – which founded the Munich Re Foundation in April 2005 – concerns itself with the great challenges facing the world today – population growth, globalisation, diminishing resources, environmental pollution and climate change. Continue Reading »

As world leaders haggle over emissions cuts and financial obligations to promote technology transfer to developing nations, a vanguard of microfinance institutions (MFIs) have silently financed purchases of clean energy technologies such as solar panels, biogas digesters, micro hydro dams and clean energy cook stoves in some of the poorest regions of the world. The prevalence of small-scale clean technologies could contribute to the displacement of rapidly expanding coal powered electricity grids to rural areas. Furthermore, it could replace dirty fuels – firewood, animal dung and charcoal – which have significant consequences for human health. Continue Reading »

The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) is the international development bank of the Netherlands. FMO uses loans, mezzanine financing and equity investments to invest in financial institutions and other companies in developing countries. With an investment portfolio of USD 6.5 billion, FMO is one of the world’s largest bilateral private sector development banks. FMO’s mission is to create flourishing enterprises that can serve as engines of sustainable growth in their countries. Continue Reading »