By Shardul Agrawala and Maëlis Carraro, published by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), February 2010, 38 pages, available at: http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document-1.1.4705/02.pdf

This paper examines 22 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Bangladesh and Nepal to determine areas in which microfinance may be able to facilitate adaptation to climate change. Continue Reading »

Craig Churchill serves as the Chair of the Microinsurance Network and as Senior Technical Officer of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Social Finance Programme. Continue Reading »

Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Globe BanKO recently announced plans to expand its operations to include providing client microfinance institutions (MFIs) with liquidity management services and helping MFIs improve their operations [1]. BPI Globe BanKO currently provides clients with wholesale funds and technology and has recently started a microfinance pilot program to introduce deposit-taking, microloan and microinsurance services to retail customers [2]. Continue Reading »

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines, has decided to allow smaller banks such as rural, cooperative, and thrift banks to provide microinsurance products. Continue Reading »

The finance division of Larsen and Toubro, a publicly-held engineering and construction company, will extend its microfinance lending facility to Gujarat and Orissa, two states in North India. Continue Reading »

The Finance Department of the Philippines government recently estimated that, if all the recipients of government-led microfinance programs were covered, the premiums could yield around PHP 2.5 billion (USD 54 million) annually. Continue Reading »

According to a press release, the Z Zurich Foundation, the arm of the Zurich Financial Services Group focused on social initiatives related to microinsurance, has contributed CHF 3 million, the equivalent of over USD 2.83 million, to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Microinsurance Innovation Facility to provide grants to organizations that are involved with microinsurance [1,2,3]. Continue Reading »

Equity Bank, a commercial bank based in Kenya; UAP Insurance Limited, an East African insurance provider based in Kenya; and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), an independent institute based in Kenya, will launch a program that allows herders to purchase insurance for cows, goats, sheep or camels in case of starvation during a drought [1,2,3]. Continue Reading »

Event Name: The Sixth International Microinsurance Conference
Event Date: November 9-11, 2010
Event Location: Hotel Intercontinental, Manila, Philippines
Event Website: http://www.microinsuranceconference.org/2010 Continue Reading »

MicroEnsure was founded in 2005 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Opportunity International, a global non-profit microfinance network created in 1974. Continue Reading »

Written by Asif Dowla, published by Grameen Foundation and Oxfam America in November 2009, 39 pages, available at: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/pressreleases/grameen-foundation-and-oxfam-america-release-new-report-on-climate-change-and-microfinance Continue Reading »

UnityKapital Assurance Plc, a Nigerian insurance company with a recorded NGN 518 million (USD 3.47 million) profit after tax in 2008, has announced the deployment of a comprehensive information technology (IT) system and an expansion into newer areas of insurance, including Islamic insurance and microinsurance. Continue Reading »

Launched by the Guyanan government in cooperation with the World Bank and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Symposium on Agricultural Risk and Insurance was held in Georgetown, Guyana, from December 7th to 9th to address the primary risk factors affecting the agricultural sector of Guyana and to lay out a risk management strategy. The event included 70 participants from the policy, agriculture, risk management, and financial sectors. Continue Reading »

Bank of the Philippines Islands Globe Savings Bank (BanKo), a thrift bank that is expected to become a branchless microfinance bank in the Philippines, has begun pilot testing retail microlending, deposit-taking, and microinsurance using mobile money technology (MMT) [1]. The bank is owned by Bank of the Philippines Islands (BPI), a private commercial bank in the Phillipines; Globe Telecommunications Inc., a telecommunications company based in the Philippines; and Ayala Corp., a holding company with a varied portfolio including BPI’s outstanding stock [1,2,3,4]. BanKo is expected to open its head office in January of 2010 and begin lending to borrowers from the BPI microfinance unit’s client base of 170,000 borrowers [1]. At this point, BanKo is also expected to offer wholesale microlending to clients such as microfinance institutions (MFIs) [1]. Additionally, BanKo will open “regional centers,” not to be confused with branches, in order to establish relationships with MFIs, rural banks, and non-bank financial institutions [1]. Continue Reading »

According to the Managing Director of Insurance Brokers of Nigeria, Mr Prosper Okpue, the insurance penetration rate of Nigeria continues to worsen. His statement comes over a year after the World Bank issued a report citing that the Nigerian insurance industry had remained stagnant for 35 years and its world market share stood at a mere 0.01 percent (compared with South Africa’s 0.83%). The former president of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers attributed this to the fact that, “Only companies or government ministries will pay premium for their group life insurance. What happens to the informal sector where the bulk of the population can be found carrying out legitimate economic activities?” In response to the issue, Mr Okpue proposed a microinsurance scheme that would “help the people integrate insurance into their lives.” Further details have not been released. Continue Reading »

To spur the development of innovative microinsurance products, the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Microinsurance Innovation Facility has opened its fourth round of grant funding. Since “insurance providers often lack the know how to reach this market and need to experiment to develop sustainable business models…[these] grants are there to support those risk takers, cover their start up costs and harness lessons learnt,” said Craig Churchill, team leader of the Microinsurance Innovation Facility. Since its founding in 2008, the Facility has provided 34 innovation grants, ranging from USD 20,000 to USD 600,000, to insurance companies, cooperatives, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other microinsurance providers. The deadline for the fourth round of grant proposals is March 2nd, 2010. More information can be found at www.ilo.org/microinsurance. Continue Reading »

Event Name: MicroInsurance Summit 2010: Evaluating Stategies for Delivery, Partner-Agent Models and Scalability

Event Date: February 23-25, 2010

Event Location: Le Meridien Piccadilly, London

Event Website: http://www.hansonwade.com/events/microinsurance-summit-2010/index.shtml

See Our Comprehensive Event Calendar Here:
http://microfinanceassociation.ning.com/events Continue Reading »

LeapFrog Investments, a for-profit, private equity microinsurance fund, has invested ZAR 50 million (USD 6.8 million) in AllLife, a South African insurer for people with HIV and diabetes. AllLife provides life insurance only to those who follow an appropriate health monitoring and treatment program, enabling it to maintain more competitively priced coverage. Mr. Ross Beerman, Managing Director of AllLife said: “These are potential policyholders, willing to pay for reasonably priced insurance and willing to take steps to manage their disease so that they lead long and productive lives. From a business risk and profitability perspective, of course they’re insurable - we simply had to invent systems to monitor and support them in the right ways.” Continue Reading »