The World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), a US-based trade association and support organization for credit unions, and Boom Financial, a US-based mobile banking, payments and money transfer provider, have partnered in an effort to assist credit unions worldwide in offering mobile banking services to their customers. Continue Reading »

Grupo Accion Comunitaria del Peru (ACP) Inversiones y Desarrollo, a nonprofit holding company based in Peru, recently received the approval of Mexican banking regulators to convert Forjadores de Negocios SA, its Mexican microfinance institution (MFI), into Banco Forjadores, which is expected to begin operations in the first quarter of 2013. Continue Reading »

Fifteen microfinance institutions in the Caribbean have recently become beneficiaries of a USD 2.7 million technical cooperation fund that will provide customized staff training programmes. Continue Reading »

ResponsAbility Social Investments, a Swiss investment company, recently informed MicroCapital that it has disbursed the local-currency equivalent of USD 1.3 million in debt to ProEmpresa, a Peruvian microfinance institution (MFI), through the responsAbility Global Microfinance Fund (rAGMF), one of the microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) it manages. Continue Reading »

Omtrix Incorporated, a privately owned fund management consulting firm based in Costa Rica, recently announced the first disbursement from its Higher Education Finance Fund (HEFF), which will go to Fundacion Genesis Empresarial, a Guatemalan microfinance institution (MFI). Continue Reading »

“Global Microscope on the Microfinance Business Environment 2012;” by the Economist Intelligence Unit; published by The Economist; 72 pages; available at: http://www5.iadb.org/mif/en-us/home/knowledge.aspx?idPublication=64206 Continue Reading »

The following case study was provided to MicroCapital by VisionFund.

It all began over 15 years ago. What is now a profitable agricultural community of farmers in Bolivia was once an arid land with a disconnected neighbourhood. VisionFund’s Microfinance Institute (MFI) in Bolivia alongside it’s partner, World Vision Bolivia, played a significant role in supporting this change. Continue Reading »

CoreCo Central America Fund I, a private equity fund based in Guatemala that invests in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Central America, recently received an equity investment of USD 10 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group. Continue Reading »

The Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO), a public-private partnership established by the Belgian government, recently disbursed a technical assistance grant of an undisclosed amount to Banco Solidario, an Ecuadorian microfinance institution (MFI). Continue Reading »

Absolute Portfolio Management GmbH (APM), an Austrian investment company that specializes in microfinance, recently disbursed loans to unspecified microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Asia, Eastern Europe and South America. Continue Reading »

The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the US-based IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) Group, has agreed to partner with Global Partnerships, a US-based nonprofit, to support microfinance institutions (MFIs) and cooperatives in offering health services and health education to low-income households in Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua. Continue Reading »

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a US-based finance institution that provides funding to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other sectors, recently issued a partial credit guarantee of UYU 51.4 million (USD 2.41 million) to Microfin, a microfinance institution (MFI) that provides support to SMEs in Uruguay. Continue Reading »

Fundacion para el Desarollo Integral Espoir, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) offering economic and social development services to poor female entrepreneurs in Ecuador, recently borrowed USD 1.5 million jointly from Developpement international Desjardins (DID) and Desjardins Fund for Inclusive Finance, two members of Desjardins Group, a cooperative financial institution based in Canada. Continue Reading »

Event Name: 15th Inter-American MicroEnterprise Forum (Foromic)

Event Location: Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Bridgetown, Barbados Continue Reading »

The Rural Impulse Fund II (RIF II), a microfinance investment vehicle (MIV) managed by Incofin Investment Management (IM) of Belgium, has acquired an 8.2-percent equity stake in Peru’s Empresa de Desarrollo de la Pequeña y Micro Empresa (EDPYME) Solidaridad, a non-bank financial institution that is held by the nonprofit organization Caritas del Peru. Continue Reading »

ResponsAbility Social Investments, a Swiss investment company, has informed MicroCapital that it recently disbursed the local-currency equivalent of approximately USD 3.7 million in Latin America. Continue Reading »

Banking Production Centre (BPC) Banking Technologies, a mobile technology solutions provider with offices in Asia, Europe, Latin America and Russia, has released SmartVista for Microfinance, an electronic payment solution specifically for microfinance institutions (MFIs). Continue Reading »

The Incofin Rural Impulse Fund II (RIF II), a microfinance investment vehicle (MIV) that mobilizes capital for rural microfinance institutions (MFIs), recently completed an equity investment of an undisclosed amount in Azercredit, an Azerbaijani MFI. Continue Reading »