responsAbility Social Investments AG (responsAbility), a Swiss asset management company that invests in microfinance institutions (MFIs) and microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs), recently reported to MicroCapital that it made debt investments totaling approximately USD 6.7 million through MIVs it manages to Locfund, an MIV with offices in Costa Rica and Bolivia, and the following three MFIs: Interfisa, a financial intermediation company offering loans, voluntary savings and fund transfer services in Paraguay; Ecofuturo, a regulated Bolivian MFI that supports the development of small and micro-enterprises; and FIE Grand Poder of Argentina. Continue Reading »

President Alberto Moreno of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a multilateral development financial institution, recently expressed satisfaction with the health and growth of the Peruvian financial system, but reiterated the need for extending financial services to the poorest people. Continue Reading »

Incofin Investment Management (Incofin), a Belgian fund manager that invests in microfinance institutions (MFIs), recently reported that the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union’s financing institution, has appointed Frankfurt School of Finance, a bank training and consultancy institute in Germany, to provide technical assistance (TA) for Incofin’s Rural Impulse Fund II (RIF II). RIF II is a EUR 97 million (USD 139 million) fund that invests in MFIs targeting rural areas in developing countries. In order to improve the outreach and impact of its investees, Incofin has integrated a technical assistance facility into the fund. EIB has contributed EUR 1 million (USD 1.4 million) to the facility to support investees located in countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). According to Incofin, the total TA budget of RIF II will amount to approximately EUR 2.5 million (USD 3.6 million).  Continue Reading »

Between August 2004 and August 2010, Brazil’s National Productive Microcredit Programme, which was developed in an effort to expand access to credit among formal- and informal-sector entrepreneurs, generated the equivalent of approximately USD 4 billion dollars in credit for low-income households [1]. Lauro González, coordinator of the Microfinance Studies Centre of Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation was recently quoted as stating, “the number of holders of small-scale loans rose from 200,000 to more than one million” since the launch of the programme in 2003 [1]. Marcelo Azevedo Teixeira, manager of the Urban Microfinance Unit at the state-run Banco do Nordeste do Brasil (BNB), stated, “The initiative has played an important role in strengthening and expanding credit for the low-income population…. New actors entered the market, new products were developed, and regulations evolved, which made it possible to coordinate the activities of different institutions” [1]. Continue Reading »

Fonkoze, a Haiti-based microfinance institution (MFI), has initiated the claims process for its clients that were affected by recent heavy rains in Haiti. Torrential rains have caused mudslides, flooding and widespread destruction of property in Haiti during June 2011. In response, Fonkoze will be making payments under its catastrophe recovery product, which was launched in January 2011 as a required add-on bought by all Fonkoze clients at the time of their loan disbursement. Clients who have lost their homes or their business as a result of the rains will receive a cash payout of HTG 5,000 (USD 125) to meet emergency needs such as food, shelter, water and temporary shelter. Fonkoze reports, “these clients will also receive a reimbursement of the balance of their existing loan and a new loan when they are ready to restart their business” [1]. Continue Reading »

Triodos Investment Management, a Netherlands-based manager of four microfinance investment funds, recently reported to MicroCapital that its funds have added three Latin American microfinance institutions (MFIs) to their portfolios; Cooperativa Mixta Mujeres Unidas Limitada (COMIXMUL) of Honduras; Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Mujeres Unidas (CACMU) of Ecuador; and Institución Financiera de Desarrollo (IFD) Sembrar Sartawi of Bolivia. Continue Reading »

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 »

Triple Jump, a Netherlands-based advisory service and manager of three microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs), recently announced plans to open an office in Mexico City, Mexico, to serve the region of Central America and the Caribbean. 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 government of Peru recently passed legislation that recognizes the nonprofit status of credit unions and other cooperatives, exempting their transactions from a sales tax. La Federación Nacional de Cooperativas de Ahorro y Crédito del Perú (FENACREP), a Peruvian member of the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), has been working with a coalition of local advocacy groups to get the bill passed since its introduction to the legislature in December 2009. (No further information on the sales tax-exemption bill is available at the time this brief was published.) WOCCU is a US-based global trade association of credit unions. Continue Reading »

responsAbility Social Investments AG, a Swiss investment company that operates a number of microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs), recently reported to MicroCapital that it has made local-currency debt investments worth a total of USD 7.5 million in Peruvian microfinance institutions (MFIs) Edpyme Raiz, Financiera Confianza and Asociacion Benefica Prisma (Prisma). Continue Reading »

Compartamos Banco, a Mexican microfinance bank, recently announced the initiation of microfinance operations in Guatemala through its subsidiary, Compartamos SA (Guatemala) [1]. Continue Reading »

Event Name: XIV FOROMIC 2011: Inter-American Forum on Microenterprise

Event Date: October 10 to October 12, 2011

Event Location: San Jose, Costa Rica 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 »

The Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI), a competition developed by the Haiti Integrated Finance for Value Chains and Enterprises (HIFIVE) that provides prize money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and US Agency for International Development (USAID), continues to accept proposals from private sector organizations to develop mobile money services in Haiti. Continue Reading »

UNICEF, the United Nations’ Children’s Fund, has developed a network of 70 bancos comunales (communal banks) in rural Bolivia to deliver microfinance services to excluded and impoverished people. Continue Reading »

Members of the “No Pago” (No Payment) Movement, in which thousands of Nicaraguan borrowers refused to pay back outstanding loans beginning in 2009, have proposed a deal wherein the government would immediately repay debts to microfinance institutions (MFIs) worth USD 25 million and the debtors would pay the government back over ten years. Continue Reading »