The CDC Group, a UK development finance institution, has committed USD 10 million to Shorecap International’s ShoreCap II (SCII) fund, which will invest in microfinance institutions in low-income African and Asian countries. Continue Reading »

N R Narayana Murthy, founder and former CEO of Infosys, a global consulting and information technology services company based in India, will reportedly invest in SKS Microfinance Ltd, an Indian microfinance institution (MFI) expected to soon float an initial public offering (IPO). Continue Reading »

IFMR Capital recently completed a multi-originator securitization of micro-loans originated by Asirvad Microfinance Pvt Ltd, Sahayata Microfinance Pvt Ltd, Satin Creditcare Network Ltd and Sonata Finance Pvt Ltd. Continue Reading »

ICICI Prudential Asset Management, an Indian fund manager, has invested in a securitized offering by Equitas Microfinance, an Indian microcredit lending firm based in Chennai, India. Continue Reading »

MicroEnsure was founded in 2005 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Opportunity International, a global non-profit microfinance network created in 1974. Continue Reading »

Written by Robert Peck Christen and Mark Flaming of CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), published by the World Bank Group in December 2009, 58 pages, available at: http://www.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.36521/DueDiligence_TechGuide_ENG.pdf

The purpose of this paper is to provide a method of acquiring an understanding of the underlying quality of the loan portfolio of an microfinance institution (MFI) for banking regulators, donor agencies, and potential investors. Continue Reading »

World Vision has received a USD 3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help launch its Access to Rural Savings in Ethiopia project. Continue Reading »

Written by Asif Dowla, published by Grameen Foundation and Oxfam America in November 2009, 39 pages, available at: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/pressreleases/grameen-foundation-and-oxfam-america-release-new-report-on-climate-change-and-microfinance Continue Reading »

UnityKapital Assurance Plc, a Nigerian insurance company with a recorded NGN 518 million (USD 3.47 million) profit after tax in 2008, has announced the deployment of a comprehensive information technology (IT) system and an expansion into newer areas of insurance, including Islamic insurance and microinsurance. Continue Reading »

In response to an internal study showing strong demand for a world-class-quality, research-informed masters degree in microfinance, Australia’s Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC) is seeking your input on this possibility via an online survey. While acknowledging that there are a few existing masters degrees specialising in microfinance, FDC argues for the expansion of offerings citing the ranking of “weak management quality” in the top five risks for microfinance by the “Microfinance Banana Skins” survey each of the last two years. Continue Reading »

According to the Managing Director of Insurance Brokers of Nigeria, Mr Prosper Okpue, the insurance penetration rate of Nigeria continues to worsen. His statement comes over a year after the World Bank issued a report citing that the Nigerian insurance industry had remained stagnant for 35 years and its world market share stood at a mere 0.01 percent (compared with South Africa’s 0.83%). The former president of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers attributed this to the fact that, “Only companies or government ministries will pay premium for their group life insurance. What happens to the informal sector where the bulk of the population can be found carrying out legitimate economic activities?” In response to the issue, Mr Okpue proposed a microinsurance scheme that would “help the people integrate insurance into their lives.” Further details have not been released. Continue Reading »

To spur the development of innovative microinsurance products, the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Microinsurance Innovation Facility has opened its fourth round of grant funding. Since “insurance providers often lack the know how to reach this market and need to experiment to develop sustainable business models…[these] grants are there to support those risk takers, cover their start up costs and harness lessons learnt,” said Craig Churchill, team leader of the Microinsurance Innovation Facility. Since its founding in 2008, the Facility has provided 34 innovation grants, ranging from USD 20,000 to USD 600,000, to insurance companies, cooperatives, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other microinsurance providers. The deadline for the fourth round of grant proposals is March 2nd, 2010. More information can be found at www.ilo.org/microinsurance. Continue Reading »

The nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) recently announced that its microfinance taxonomy has been officially acknowledged by XBRL International, the coordinating body for XBRL activities and standards. XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is an open-source technology that is widely used in Europe and has been adopted by major players elsewhere, such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bank of Japan and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. MIX’s microfinance taxonomy is based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) with additional features specific to microfinance. Scott Gaul, manager of product development at MIX, argues that, “Using IFRS as the basis of the taxonomy allows for a direct link to an accounting standard in use in over 100 countries worldwide and closer alignment of microfinance with mainstream markets,” and that XBRL will “encourage richer data on microfinance, increasing transparency without increasing the reporting burden on MFIs.” Continue Reading »

Event Name: MicroInsurance Summit 2010: Evaluating Stategies for Delivery, Partner-Agent Models and Scalability

Event Date: February 23-25, 2010

Event Location: Le Meridien Piccadilly, London

Event Website: http://www.hansonwade.com/events/microinsurance-summit-2010/index.shtml

See Our Comprehensive Event Calendar Here:
http://microfinanceassociation.ning.com/events Continue Reading »

LeapFrog Investments, a for-profit, private equity microinsurance fund, has invested ZAR 50 million (USD 6.8 million) in AllLife, a South African insurer for people with HIV and diabetes. AllLife provides life insurance only to those who follow an appropriate health monitoring and treatment program, enabling it to maintain more competitively priced coverage. Mr. Ross Beerman, Managing Director of AllLife said: “These are potential policyholders, willing to pay for reasonably priced insurance and willing to take steps to manage their disease so that they lead long and productive lives. From a business risk and profitability perspective, of course they’re insurable – we simply had to invent systems to monitor and support them in the right ways.” Continue Reading »

Published by Lloyd’s 360 Risk Insight and the MicroInsurance Centre in November 2009, 38 pages, available at: http://www.lloyds.com/NR/rdonlyres/5CFE7CAF-0075-415C-B0F2-BEBF0323059E/0/Microinsurancereport_Nov2009.pdf

Produced by Lloyd’s, an insurance and reinsurance market, and the MicroInsurance Centre, a consulting and advocacy company, this report describes the current landscape of microinsurance and lays out the means and benefits of entering this emerging market. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), European Commission and Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently announced the launch of the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), a reinsurance vehicle aimed to mitigate catastrophic risks in developing countries. Index-based insurance provides policies that pay a set amount in the event of a measurable occurrence of a natural disaster, e.g. an earthquake registering a certain magnitude or a drought that has lasted for a certain number of days. The objective of the Facility is to “assist in the development of a truly global market for index-based insurance instruments” by providing four main functions: market intermediation, risk pooling, limited holding of risk or “risk warehousing,” and market development. Continue Reading »

MicroCapital is pleased to announce the release of the pilot issue of The MicroInsurance Times. As your daily microfinance news source since 2005 and the publisher of The MicroCapital Monitor, we invite you to contact us with feedback or to support the launch of this new publication. In it you will find news, events, information resources, paper wrap-ups on microinsurance plus our interview with Dr Andrew Kuper, President and Founder of LeapFrog Investments.