The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, will provide up to COP 4 billion, approximately USD 2.1 million, to Colombia’s Corporacion Mundial de la Mujer de Medellin (WWB-Medellin) in order to support the bank’s expansion.  This financing follows another loan of up to USD 2.1 million that IFC committed earlier this year to WWB Medellin. Continue Reading »

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: Microfinance as a Tool for Peacebuilding Continue Reading »

Global Partnerships (GP), a Seattle-based non-profit organization that funds microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Latin America, recently announced the creation of its Microfinance Fund 2008 (MFF 2008), a USD 20 million microfinance investment fund intended to aid the rural poor.  Seeking a return of four to five percent on a six-year note, MFF 2008 will fund investments in several MFIs and other partner organizations in Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru.  The fund is closed to additional investors. Continue Reading »

Microcapital has identified the following six microfinance “pioneers,” individuals who have made long-standing contributions to the evolution and promotion of microfinance practices and/or technology. While not all of these pioneers hail from Latin America, all have been instrumental to the development of microfinance in that region. These pioneers are: Álvaro Dávila of Colombia, Joseph Blatchford of the USA, Theodore C. Ning, Jr. of the USA, Mercedes Canalda de Beras-Goico of the Dominican Republic, Clara Serra de Akerman of Colombia, and José Ignacio Avalos Hernánde of Mexico. Below are short descriptons of the contributions of each: Continue Reading »

Source: MIX (Microfinance Information Exchange, Inc.).
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BBVA Microfinance Foundation, the microfinance arm of BBVA Group, a multinational financial services group, and BanCredito, the state owned bank formerly known as Cartago Agricultural Credit Bank,  have signed a collaboration agreement for an undisclosed amount to promote initiatives that would make credit and other financial products accessible to the most disadvantaged sectors of Costa Rica’s population and others in Central America.  “This alliance will result in important benefits for the development of Costa Rica’s microfinance sector, as both of our entities share common objectives: allow people who currently don’t have access to the traditional financial system to be able to establish small production activities that would help them improve their quality of life and that of their families in a sustainable manner,” BBVA’s Mendez del Rio said. Continue Reading »

Source: Carlos Slim Helu.
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The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a USD 1 billion loan to the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), the country’s federal public bank for development. The 20 year loan will go towards financing long-term credit to microenterprises and small and medium-size businesses . It is the third loan of the same size by the IDB made from a USD 3 billion conditional credit line launched in 2004 for BNDES. Continue Reading »

Source: Banex.
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Source: Banex.
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Pro Mujer, an international microfinance organization serving women in Latin America will hold its 2008 benefit celebration in New York City on October 30th. The event will celebrate Pro Mujer’s 18 years of operation and over one million women served. Continue Reading »

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a United States federal agency, has announced a USD 350 million financing plan towards private equity investments in Latin America. The plan was approved by OPIC’s Board of Directors to finance three approved new funds in order to provide capital across several economic sectors, including microfinance. The private equity funds are the Greylock Latin America Opportunity Fund, the Latin Power and Infrastructure IV Fund, and the Altra Private Equity IV Fund (APEF). The investment will allow these funds to achieve a combined capitalization of USD 1.45 billion. Continue Reading »

Healthy borrowers repay loans.  That is the theory underlying Freedom From Hunger’s Microfinance and Health Protection Program.  Freedom From Hunger, an international development organization that is funded by a USD 5.6 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is taking a creative approach to reducing borrower default rates.  The company has found that when loans are not repaid, health care needs are often a principal reason.  Borrowers will use loan proceeds to pay for health care needs instead of for investing in their businesses.  In 2007, the Microfinance and Health Protection Program began offering borrowers discounted doctor visits, health care savings accounts, affordable medicine, and emergency health care loans in order to combat this problem. Continue Reading »

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) recently announced a projection that the value of remittances sent by migrant workers to their families in Latin America and the Caribbean will grow in 2008 by its slowest rate on record.  Migrants sent home about USD 66.5 billion last year but may increase that amount by about 1.5 percent in 2008, bringing the yearly total to USD 67.5 billion.   Despite the nominal increase, remittances in 2008 may for the first time contribute 1.7 percent less (p. 1) to household incomes after accounting for rising Latin-American inflation and the falling U.S. dollar.  Continue Reading »

Source: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
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Source: Inter-American Development Bank.
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MICROINSURANCE CONFERENCE 2008

NOVEMBER 5^th - 7^th 2008, CONVENTION CENTER IN CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA

This event is the fourth international Microinsurance Conference jointly hosted by the CGAP Working Group on Microinsurance and the Munich Re Foundation. It will focus on the four themes of technology, capacity building, regulatory and policy issues, and innovative products and distribution channels. The conference will have plenary panel discussions on key topics addressing an interdisciplinary audience and will have in attendance over 300 experts in key areas relevant to microfinance.

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The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF), a Latin American multilateral institution, and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a specialized information service, have partnered together to report on the conditions of microfinance within Latin America and the Caribbean. The report highlights the results of the EIU-developed Microscope index – a tally of weighted factors relevant to the industry, and was presented at the Microenterprise Forum held in Paraguay this past month. Continue Reading »