IFMR Capital, a private India-based company that aims to provide liquidity and debt capital to financial institutions that serve poor people, recently securitized a “multi-originator” portfolio of 49,881 loans with a total value of INR 511 million (USD 10.5 million). Continue Reading »

Christofferson, Robb and Company (CRC), a private UK- and US-based money manager, is working to raise USD 400 million for a new “capital release fund” that will allow banks and financial institutions in developed countries to reduce the amount of capital that must be set aside against losses from their loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. Continue Reading »

The Tuninvest-Africinvest Group, a Tunisia-based private equity company that invests in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), recently announced the closing of its Maghreb Private Equity Fund III (MPEF III) with approximately EUR 96 million (USD 134 million) in capital commitments. Continue Reading »

By Frederic de Mariz, Xavier Reille and Daniel Rozas; published by JP Morgan and CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor); July 2011; 29 pages; available at: http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m//template.rc/1.9.52137 Continue Reading »

By Xavier Reille, Sarah Forster and Daniel Rozas; published by CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor); 2011; 16 pages; available at http://www.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.50967/FN71.pdf Continue Reading »

ImpactAssets, a US-based nonprofit company specializing in impact investment, recently released its “2011 ImpactAssets 50,” a list of investment fund managers that “achieve financial performance with positive social and environmental impacts,” including 22 microfinance-focused funds. Continue Reading »

Opportunity Fund, a nonprofit organization based in the US state of California that offers microloans and microsavings primarily to people in the San Francisco Bay area; ACCION International, a microfinance organization that provides lending and financial education to small businesses in twenty-three countries; and Kiva, a US-based online portal that allows individuals to make loans to microfinance institutions (MFIs) for on-lending to poor people in sixty countries, hosted the Microfinance USA Conference 2011 on May 23 and May 24 in New York City. Continue Reading »

Incofin Investment Management, a Belgian fund manager that invests in microfinance institutions (MFIs), has raised EUR 11 million (USD 15.8 million) for Rural Impulse Fund II, which invests in MFIs in developing countries that have at least 30 percent of their operations in rural areas. Continue Reading »

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India are reportedly securitizing more of the loans they disburse to women in order to raise capital they would likely have borrowed from banks before the liquidity crunch that has affected the microfinance sector since late 2010. Continue Reading »

The CGAP Microfinance Blog, which is operated by US-based think tank CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), recently posted an article by Ignacio Mas of the US-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that examines the role that mobile phones can play in facilitating broader financial inclusion by delivering savings, payment and budgeting services. Continue Reading »

There are now at least 17 websites offering the opportunity for individuals to direct as little as USD 20 to microborrowers in both rich and poor countries, including: Babyloan, Good Return, Kiva, MicroPlace, MyElen.com, MYC4, Veecus, Xetic.org, 51Give, Rang De, Wokai, DhanaX,  p2p Microfinance, Zidisha, Inuka, Acceder and OptInNow. Most of these websites post information on potential borrowers that can be viewed by lenders, but most channel funds to microlenders that may use the money to lend to any of their clients. In most cases, these investments do not yield any returns to investors. Others such as MicroPlace, MYC4, MyElen.com, p2p Microfinance, DhanaX and Zidisha pay an interest to their investors. Still others do not allow the “lender” to withdraw funds at any time, instead using the donation to capitalize lending pools. Continue Reading »

Good Magazine, a US-based media platform that reports on social causes, recently argued that guarantees offered by wealthy individuals to microlenders could assist microfinance institutions (MFIs) in accessing funding during a difficult time for the industry, following claims of “loansharking” by some Indian microlenders. Continue Reading »

Associate director Ms Madeleine Bunting of British newspaper The Guardian recently facilitated a discussion to address the question of whether microfinance helps reduce poverty with Mr Ha-Joon Chang, Cambridge University economist; Mr Ajaz Khan, microfinance advisor for Swiss nonprofit organization Care International; Mr David Roodman, senior fellow at US-based, nonprofit think tank Center for Global Development; and Mr Vikram Akula, chairperson and founder of Indian microfinance institution (MFI) SKS Microfinance [1]. Continue Reading »

In its effort to address a housing shortage in the country, the government of Tanzania recently announced a plan to launch a housing microfinance fund to provide affordable housing options to low-income individuals. The fund, the size of which has not been disclosed, aims to reduce the number of slums and address the shortage of housing capacity in the Tanzanian cities of Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Mwanza. Continue Reading »

By Lora du Moulin, Jean Pouit, Leyla Sharafi, Aminata Toure, Kai Lashley, Barbara Ryan, Gayle Nelson and Divya Alexander; published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); design and analysis of study by Research and Applications for Alternative Financing for Development (RAFAD); 2011; 15 pages; available at http://www.unfpa.org/public/home/publications/pid/7262 Continue Reading »

SNS Asset Management (SNS AM), a Dutch fund manager, has announced the launch of its impact investing unit, SNS Impact Investing, which will focus on investments in microfinance, sustainable agriculture and water. The new unit will consist of a team of ten people, headed by Harry Hummels, who serves as a board member of SNS AM, and Theo Brouwers, who is a director of SNS AM. Continue Reading »

responsAbility Social Investments AG, an investment company based in Switzerland, recently launched responsAbility Ventures I, a venture capital fund that invests in companies that provide basic services in the areas of energy, agriculture and information and communication technology (ICT) to the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). The BOP refers to approximately 3 billion people in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe who do not have adequate access to these services. Continue Reading »

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in collaboration with United States Agency for International Development (AID), has announced the award of its “First to Market” prize of USD 2.5 million to Jamaica-based mobile operator Digicel and its Canadian partner bank ScotiaBank as part of the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI), a competition created by the US-funded Haiti Integrated Finance for Value Chains and Enterprises (HIFIVE) in June 2010 to encourage partnerships between mobile operators and banks to launch mobile money programs. Continue Reading »