MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Vice President of the Economic Commission of Nicaragua Urges the Passing of a Microfinance Law in Wake of “No Pago” Movement, Liquidation of Microfinance Institution Banco del Exito’s (Banex)

The Vice President of the Economic Commission of the National Assembly of Nicaragua, Freddy Torres, reportedly warned Nicaragua’s citizens in November 2010 that the country may lose up to USD 400 million if a microfinance law promoting regulation is not approved before year’s end.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Payment Strike Hits India’s Andhra Pradesh State As Local Governments Urge Microfinance Borrowers Not to Repay

In India’s Andhra Pradesh state, local government officials are reportedly telling microfinance borrowers to stop repaying lenders even if they have the money to do so. The state government there has begun to increase restrictions on interest rates and arrest thuggish lending agents for fear that high rates and harassment from lenders has contributed to an overwhelming debt burden on microborrowers and suicides in the region.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Serbian Government Reviews Microfinance Law Aimed to Improve Lending to Low-Income Citizens

Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Delic of Serbia recently announced that the Serbian government is reviewing a law that will allow for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the country to lend directly to their clients instead of lending through the current framework, which only allows lending through local banks.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Backed by G20, Ashoka Changemakers Announces 14 Winners of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Finance Challenge

Ashoka Changemakers announced this month that it has selected 14 proposals as the winners of the SME Finance Challenge, which is hosted by Ashoka, a US-based nonprofit organization that invests in social entrepreneurship, and backed by the G-20, a group of financial ministers and central bank authorities representing 20 major economies.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Reserve Bank of India to Publish Report on Regulating the Indian Microfinance Industry by End of January 2011

According to the website of the Hindustantimes Newspaper, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the central bank of India, is preparing a report making recommendations on regulating the Indian microfinance industry, which has recently come under intense scrutiny.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Former CEO of Jammu and Kashmir Bank Calls Efforts to Regulate Indian Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) “Flawed”, Argues NABARD Has Conflicts of Interest

Haseeb Drabu, former CEO of Jammu and Kashmir Bank, a bank owned by the Indian state governments of Jammu and Kashmir, recently wrote an article published on the LiveMint website calling recent efforts by authorities to rein in the Indian microfinance industry “flawed”.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment Initiative Set Standards for Microfinance Investment Vehicle Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance

CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), a policy and research center dedicated to providing financial access for the world’s poor, and the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), a network of international investors created to promote the practice of responsible investing, have partnered to create the following criteria for measuring the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs)

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Experts Warn that New Legislation in Andhra Pradesh Might Reduce Profitability of Indian Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)

On the website of the LiveMint newspaper, a number of experts in India recently cautioned that legislations currently proposed in Andhra Pradesh, India, might cause a sharp drop in profitability of microfinance institutions (MFIs).

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), LuxFLAG, United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), Eurosif Partner to Award Three Microfinance Investment Vehicle (MIV) Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Awards

CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), an independent policy and research center dedicated to providing financial access for the world’s poor, has teamed up with the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), a network of international investors created under the auspices of the UN to promote the practice of responsible investing; LuxFLAG, an organization that certifies that microfinance vehicles (MIVs) actually invest in the microfinance sector; and the European Social Investment Forum (Eurosif), a pan-European network aiming to foster sustainable development through European financial markets, to create the CGAP Microfinance Investment Vehicle (MIV) Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Awards.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Gives Provisional Approval for 121 New Microfinance Bank (MFB) Licenses

After announcing that Nigerian microfinance banks (MFBs) would have to fulfill stricter capital requirements in order to obtain licenses, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has begun to grant provisional approval for new licenses to approximately 121 out of the 224 MFBs whose licenses were revoked earlier this year.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MFTransparency Launches Transparent Microfinance Pricing Initiative in Rwanda and Uganda

MFTransparency, a US-based nongovernmental organization launched in July 2008 that aims to provide information on credit products and pricing, the Association of Micro Finance Institutions in Rwanda and the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda, are partnering to expand MFTransparency’s Transparent Pricing Initiative to those two countries with the aim of providing training on interest rate calculations, publishing online pricing information and promoting consumer protection.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Indian Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Andhra Pradesh Offer Debt Restructuring

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Andhra Pradesh, India, are offering many of their estimated 6.7 million borrowers the option of restructuring their outstanding loans in an effort to defuse recent popular and political hostility towards microfinance in the area.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Indian Government Ponders Role of NABARD in New Microfinance Regulatory Framework

The Indian government is considering giving the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), a development bank that formulates the credit and banking policy for the rural sector, more supervisory powers over microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Indian Government Finalizes Debt-Swap Scheme, Ordinance to Counter Coercive Practices of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)

The Cabinet of the Indian government has hammered out a debt-swap scheme to relieve self-help groups troubled by high interest rates charged on microloans and has approved a draft of an ordinance intended to end coercive collections practices by microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India.