Event Name: Penn Microfinance Conference: DiversiMFIcation, The New Landscape of Microfinance

Event Date: March 30, 2013

Event Location: Jon M. Huntsman Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Continue Reading »

The Indian Supreme Court has issued an interim order allowing Indian microfinance institution (MFI) SKS Microfinance to operate in the state of Andhra Pradesh without securing no-objection certificates from the state government. Continue Reading »

“Microfinance and Patriarchy: A Drift Away from Serving Women;” published by Knowledge @ Wharton; 2013; 3 pages; available at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/createpdf.cfm?articleid=3169

This report highlights the importance of gender equality in the provision of microfinance and focuses on the negative impacts of patriarchal attitudes on lending practices. Continue Reading »

The Social Performance Task Force (SPTF), a working group initiated in 2005 by CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), the Argidius Foundation and the Ford Foundation, is seeking submissions for its online Universal Standards Resource Library. Continue Reading »

The US-based Center for Finance, Law and Policy at Boston University (BU Center) has partnered with CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), a US-based nonprofit research and policy center, to create an online repository of materials relating to the regulation of financial inclusion around the world. Continue Reading »

Telenor Group, a Norwegian mobile services provider, reportedly expressed concerns about the ongoing dispute over the ownership of social businesses historically linked with Grameen Bank, a Bangladeshi microfinance institution (MFI). Continue Reading »

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has agreed to extend the deadline by one year for microfinance banks (MFBs) to recapitalize as needed to avoid closing branches to comply with CBN’s regulatory framework that was revised in 2011 to limit the number and locations of branches MFBs can operate based on their level of capital. Continue Reading »

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, recently released revised regulations for the licensing of new banks that allow private firms, public sector entities and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to establish banks through wholly-owned non-operative financial holding companies (NOFHCs). Continue Reading »

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), the county’s central bank, is reportedly planning to draft a policy framework to regulate the microinsurance industry. Continue Reading »

The Chinese government reportedly is requiring provincial governments to purchase commercial health insurance for farmers through the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS), a social security program run independently by each province and funded by the central government, local governments, farmers’ cooperatives and families. Continue Reading »

The committee established in September 2012 by India’s Ministry of Finance to propose elements of a regulatory framework for India’s providers of microinsurance and rural insurance is reportedly close to releasing its final report. Continue Reading »

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the insurance regulator of India, recently issued Indian microfinance institution (MFI) SKS Microfinance a fine of INR 5 million (USD 91,800) for collecting corporate insurance agent fees beyond the premium price. Continue Reading »

The Kazakh Ministry of Justice is reportedly in the process of registering a new law regulating microfinance that requires all “microcredit organizations” to convert to “microfinance organizations” within three years. Continue Reading »

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, reportedly has refused to remove the 26-percent interest rate cap on loans disbursed by microfinance institutions (MFIs) or to alter margin caps for individual loans to borrowers, despite opposition from within the sector. Continue Reading »

The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the US-based IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) Group, recently disbursed a grant of USD 362,000 to Nicaraguan nonprofit microfinance organization Fundacion para el Desarrollo Socioeconomico Rural (FUNDESER) to support the microlender in the process of becoming regulated by the country’s Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions, which is known by the Spanish acronym SIBOIF. Continue Reading »

Governor Yuba Raj Khatiwada of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central banking authority of the country, reportedly expressed concern that “the growing tendency of lending money to people who have already taken a loan from other financial institutions might expose the microfinance sector to risk.” Continue Reading »

The High Court of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh reportedly ruled to uphold the Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Act, 2010, despite petitions brought by Indian microlender SKS Microfinance and other microfinance institutions (MFIs) seeking to have the law repealed. Continue Reading »

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the country’s central bank, and the National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB), a trade group of 820 microfinance banks (MFBs) in Nigeria, recently agreed to establish a technical committee to address the recapitalization and other steps that some MFBs must undertake to comply with the Revised Microfinance Policy Framework that took effect January 1. Continue Reading »