Source: Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX). Continue Reading »
Source: Micro Finance Bank of Azerbaijan (MFBA). Continue Reading »
Source: Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO). Continue Reading »
Based on the great response to yesterday’s profile on Mr. Grzywinski and Ms. Houghton, we are offering the following transcript of our interview to give you more of the visionaries’ own words:
MicroCapital: Was there anything particular in your upbringing or background that stimulated you towards this form of career in social investment?
RG: The four of us came together in the late 1960s for the purpose of doing small business loans in inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago after they had experienced dramatic racial change and the beginnings of deterioration. That’s how it all started. The four us included two African-American men, Mary and myself, who got along quite well and who were highly motivated by our work. We had the idea to create what eventually became ShoreBank, a corporation that was totally developed using private sector resources for the purpose of doing development amongst people who have fewer resources. We bought what was then the South Shore Bank in August 1973 and three of the four of us started working here after that time. For the first 10 years or so that’s all we did. We were invited in 1983 through the Ford Foundation to go to Bangladesh and to work with Yunus when he was getting a bank charter. So that’s the background. I think the motivation for me was the opportunity to use the resources that I managed as a banker to achieve social objectives and that has continued ever since, but just with more places and more and more opportunities.
MC: At that time being bankers who wanted to do social investment must have been quite unusual. Continue Reading »
Source: Open Society Institute. Continue Reading »
Ron Grzywinski and Mary Houghton founded ShoreBank, the Unites States’ first community bank, in 1973 with Milton Davis and James Fletcher. While their company proved that a bank could make money serving poor customers, Mr. Grzywinski and Ms. Houghton have also shown leadership and commitment to the provision of accessible financial services outside of ShoreBank. They worked with Muhammad Yunus during the foundation of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and advised Bill Clinton on the development of community banking in the US. In 2006 Mr. Grzywinski and Ms. Houghton together received the Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award at Harvard University. They were also recognized by US News and World Report among “America’s Top Leaders 2007.” Continue Reading »
CRACKING THE CAPITAL MARKETS III
MARCH 10-11, 2008, NEW YORK, USA
The third ACCION conference on microfinance investment, co-hosted by Credit Suisse, will bring hedge fund managers, institutional investors and private investors together with leading rating agencies and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to discuss the successes, challenges and trends of microfinance investment. Sessions will cover how microfinance is faring amid declining markets, risk, peer lending and a separate forum only for qualified investors. The cost is USD 550. More details and online registration are available at the conference website or via Stephanie Dolan at +1 617 625 7080 x1119 or conference@accion.org.
Source: Citigroup. Continue Reading »
CRACKING THE CAPITAL MARKETS: SOUTH ASIA
APRIL 29-30, 2008, DELHI, INDIA
Cohosted by ACCION International and Standard Chartered Bank, this microfinance investment conference will bring together a wide range of finance professionals – institutional and private investors, leading microfinance institutions in Asia, international and regional banks, emerging markets specialists and rating agencies – to discuss the successes, challenges and trends of microfinance investment in South Asia. Continue Reading »
Source: The East African. Continue Reading »
Source: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Continue Reading »
Press release not available online. Continue Reading »
Source: Financial Times. Continue Reading »
Source: Business Daily Africa. Continue Reading »
Source: Reuters. Continue Reading »
WOMEN ADVANCING MICROFINANCE-NEW YORK (WAM-NY) VOICES FROM THE FIELD SERIES: CARMEN VELASCO, CO-FOUNDER OF PRO MUJER
FEBRUARY 20, 2008, BEAR STEARNS, NEW YORK
Carmen Velasco is a Bolivian born child psychologist and co-founder of Pro Mujer, a microfinance network that offers credit, savings accounts, health care services and training to poor women entrepreneurs in Latin America. Carmen will speak about her experience as a microfinance practitioner in Bolivia and in other countries throughout Latin America. Continue Reading »
Source: The New Nation (Bangladesh). Continue Reading »
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