MicroPlanet Technologies Incorporated, a US-based nonprofit that serves the technology needs of microfinance institutions (MFIs), has announced that Friendship Bridge, an MFI serving 13,000 women in Guatemala, is the first customer for its hybrid software-as-a-service (SaaS) core banking software platform. Continue Reading »

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is reported to be permitting microfinance institutions (MFIs) to accept gold as collateral to secure microfinance loans. International: The News, a Pakistan-based news source, speculates that SBP has changed its stance on the issue in an effort to boost the issuance of loans following the floods that greatly affected Pakistan in 2010. In a circular reportedly issued to all MFIs in the country, SBP stated, “the negative growth [in 2010] was mainly due to the devastating floods during the third quarter of 2010 that gripped most parts of the country…Moreover, an overall difficult macroeconomic environment continues to challenge the credit growth of microfinance players” [1]. Continue Reading »

By Binh T Nguyen and Robert Vogel, published by Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2011, 126 pages, available at: http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.9.51104/ Continue Reading »

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions (Swiss Re), a reinsurer and financial services group based in Zurich, Switzerland, have partnered to further develop the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) [1]. Index insurance is a product that covers farmers against presumed crop failure based on measurable factors such as if rainfall is below a predetermined threshold. GIIF was launched by IFC in 2009 as a regional platform intended “to develop agricultural insurance systems in West African countries including Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso” [2]. Continue Reading »

The Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR), an 84-member organization that was established in 2007 to build the capacity of the microfinance industry in Rwanda, has cautioned microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Rwanda regarding the risks of offering the same financial products to all clients. Continue Reading »

ACCION International, a US-based nonprofit organization that supports microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 22 countries, recently announced the official launch of ACCION Microfinanças, an MFI in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, has agreed to loan USD 4 million to microfinance institution (MFI) AccessBank Tajikistan to expand the MFI’s loan portfolio, develop a greater variety of credit products and “support competition in the microfinance sector,” according to an IFC press release [1]. Continue Reading »

Since its initial investment in SKS Microfinance, an India-based microfinance institution (MFI), Sequoia Capital, a US-based venture capital firm, has experienced significant gains on paper followed by partial losses of those gains. Continue Reading »

Capital Express Assurance, a Nigeria-based life insurance company, has purchased a majority shareholding in Capex Life Assurance, a Kenya-based life insurance company formerly known as Trinity Life Assurance. Capital Express Assurance purchased a 65 percent stake in Capex Life Assurance for USD 975,000 [1]. The remaining 35 percent stake was purchased by a group of individual Kenyan investors led by current Capex Life Assurance general manager, James Macharia [1]. Continue Reading »

The International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (IFAD’s) Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR), a fund that aims to reduce poverty by channeling remittances to finance development in rural areas of developing countries, announced that it recently launched its Diaspora Investment in Agriculture (DIA) Initiative. 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 »

India’s SKS Microfinance, a microfinance institution (MFI) that loans to impoverished women in India, has reported that Suresh Gurumani has resigned from his post as director of the company’s board. Continue Reading »

Advans SA, a microfinance investment vehicle (MIV) registered in Luxembourg, recently reported to MicroCapital that two of its holdings have received local-currency refinancing loans. Continue Reading »

A recent brief published by CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) examines different approaches to measuring changes in client lives that may be attributed to microfinance. Continue Reading »

The Grassroots Business Fund (GBF), a nonprofit investment fund founded in 2008 by former World Bank employee Harold Rosen, has made 32 investments worth a total of USD 8.4 million in small and medium-size enterprises in Africa, Asia and Latin America as of May 2011. Investees have included Latco International, a Bolivian producer and exporter of sesame seeds, and Hai Tanzania, a cocoa trading company. GBF is currently seeking USD 60 million in an effort to scale its “hybrid” business model, which employs a combination of grants and for-profit investments that seek to generate “low double-digit returns to investors.” According to Mr Rosen, “half a dozen or so” angel investors plan to invest a total of “between USD 100,000 and USD 1 million” [1]. Continue Reading »

Opportunity International (OI), a global network of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 24 countries, has celebrated the grand opening of its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). OI DRC is seeking to provide affordable financial services to the country’s working poor through a network of community banks. Continue Reading »