Event Name: Inclusive Financial Services Stakeholders’ Conference 2010. “Putting the Poor First: Improving the Regulatory Environment, Industry Infrastructure, and Institutional Performance for Greater Impact”

Event Date: November 28-30, 2010

Event Location: Erbil, Iraq Continue Reading »

A survey of Kenya’s M-PESA program, a cellphone-to-cellphone money management service, that was conducted by Billy Jack of Georgetown University’s Economics Department and Tavneet Suri of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Sloan School of Management, examines the impact of the service on its users. Continue Reading »

Comviva, a mobile commerce provider based in India, and Bangalink, a cellular service provider based in Bangladesh, have partnered to offer unbanked citizens of Bangladesh an “mWallet” service for managing their finances using mobile phones. Continue Reading »

Christoph Pausch, Executive Secretary of the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) of Luxembourg, recently argued in the Financial Times newspaper for “deeper” reform of the microfinance industry. Continue Reading »

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. Continue Reading »

Microenterprise Access to Banking Services and Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (MABS-RBAP), a combined effort that provides technical assistance and training to rural banks in the Philippines, and Globe Telecom’s G-Xchange Inc. (GXI), a telecommunications and mobile banking company, recently launched an automated teller machine (ATM) card that will give microfinance banking clients expanded access to ATMs throughout the country. This FaceCard is tied to GCash accounts, which are mobile phone banking accounts that allow clients to access their funds and perform transactions remotely. Continue Reading »

Event Name: Microfinance Investment Summit Hong Kong

Event Date: December 2-December 3, 2010

Event Location: InterContinental Grand Stanford Hotel, 70 Mody Road, Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China Continue Reading »

Event Name: Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) Asia Pacific (APAC) Conference and Expo 2011

Event Date: January 17 – January 20, 2011

Event Location: Manila, Philippines Continue Reading »

Advans SA, a microfinance investment vehicle (MIV) registered in Luxembourg that mobilizes funds for microfinance institutions (MFIs), has announced that it has scheduled the opening of the first branch of its sixth microfinance bank (MFB), Advans Bank Tanzania, in Dar es Salaam in December of this year. Continue Reading »

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. Continue Reading »

Grameen Foundation, a US-based nonprofit, has launched a certificate program to recognize organizations that comply with new standards of use for its Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI), a tool developed by Grameen for tracking and reporting poverty data. Continue Reading »

In its article “Innovations in Savings Services in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa,” the Microfinance Gateway, a service of CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), highlights the collaboration between private and public sectors to connect Sub-Saharan Africa’s rural poor with financial services. Continue Reading »

The Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), a nonprofit organization based in India, recently announced that it is planning to roll out an interactive map service offering information to the public on its subsidiary microfinance institution (MFI), Kshetriya Gramin Financial Services (KGFS). Continue Reading »

The World Bank Group’s “Expanding Housing Finance to the Underserved in South Asia” report aims to turn the spotlight on the lack of housing finance in South Asia and discusses the challenges of such finance in relation to microfinance. Continue Reading »

Changamka Microhealth Limited, an organization that uses technology in efforts to improve health outcomes in Kenya, has recently gained notice for its Medical Smart Card, a card that Kenyans can use to pay for visits to clinics at pre-contracted prices. Continue Reading »

Global Partnerships, a US-based nonprofit organization that supports microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Latin America, recently announced that it has closed Social Investment Fund 2010 (SIF 2010), its fourth social investment fund, at USD 20 million. Continue Reading »

A study from The Economist Intelligence Unit, publisher of The Economist magazine reports that microfinance is increasingly gaining global recognition as a viable business model, whereby technology in particular is allowing for growth in lending and other financial services for the world’s low-income microentrepreneurs. Continue Reading »

The Omidyar Network, a United States-based socially responsible investment firm, announced at the recent sixth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative that it would invest USD 55 million in technological innovations that promote government transparency and economic empowerment. Continue Reading »