Source: Business Standard. Continue Reading »
Xigi.net, an Internet-based platform that tracks so-called “blended value investing” – investments that create economic, social, and environmental value – has just launched a new Social Capital Index, which it hopes will provide a reliable and comprehensive bank of information to investors and entrepreneurs about social-capital investment instruments and transactions.
Green Microfinance (GMf) of Pennsylvania and MicroEnergy International (ME) of Germany recently announced the creation of Energizing India, a program that aims to promote clean energy products throughout India. The first phase of the project will focus on four provinces in southern India and will be implemented through a partnership with the microfinance institution (MFI) Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF).
Source: Vodafone. Continue Reading »
Source: Asian Development Bank (ADB). Continue Reading »
Compulink and SKS Microfinance, both from India, recently entered into a contract wherein Compulink will provide SKS with its entire suite of business applications. The new system will utilize Compulink’s proprietary “Whizible” framework on top of Microsoft’s Net Platform to link all 650 SKS branches using a set of web-based applications. The contract covers all of SKS’s core businesses including microcredit, microinsurance and health insurance as well as providing new accounting systems and a centralized IT infrastructure. Continue Reading »
The rise of cellphone banking in India highlights a new trend: technology developed in the Third World is flowing back to the First. Continue Reading »
CGAP has partnered with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the GSM Association, a global trade association representing over 700 mobile phone operators from 218 countries, to conduct diagnostic reviews of the regulatory environment for branchless banking approaches in Pakistan, Kenya, South Africa, the Philippines, India, Russia and Brazil. The report on India, summarized here, was released this month. MicroCapital covered the release of the Kenya report in a story dated November 26. 2007, and the Pakistan report can be downloaded from CGAP. Continue Reading »
IBM, a multi-national computer technology corporation, announced in a recent press release the launching of its 2008 podcast series, entitled “IBM and the Future of…”. The series, to be updated monthly, presents interviews with thought leaders on the impact of technology on everyday life, as well as on the effects of shifting economics on performance and value. One of the first episodes in the series is “The Future of Microfinance”, hosted by Tim Washer, from IBM’s Corporate Communications, with Jessica Flannery, co-founder of Kiva.org and Kevin Thompson from IBM’s Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs. Continue Reading »
In a press release Paris-based Planet Rating, a microfinance rating agency, announced a number of changes in its GIRAFE rating methodology. These changes take effect as of January 14, 2008 and adjust rating factor weightings and evaluation methods with regards to microfinance institution (MFI) governance, capital structure, market/financial risk, and profitability structure. Continue Reading »
Obopay’s new Indian headquarters is headed by former Yes Bank CIO Aditya Menon Continue Reading »
BusinessWeek reprinted the following from ZDNet Asia Continue Reading »
Tameer Microfinance Bank (TMFB), a commercial microfinance bank in Pakistan, has signed an agreement with One-Link, a Pakistani Automated Teller Machine (ATM) company, to enable TMFB customers to use 2,000 Onelink ATMs in 150 cities throughout Pakistan. The agreement was signed by President and CEO of TMFB Nadeem Hussain and CEO of Onelink Khayyam Mahmood Butt on behalf of their respective companies. Continue Reading »
IBM, a multinational computer technology corporation, recently announced in a press release that it plans to partner with CARE, a leading private international humanitarian organization, to jointly establish the Africa Financial Grid, an integrated data processing infrastructure that will curb costs currently incurred by microfinance institutions (MFIs) in providing financial services in Sub-Saharan Africa. Continue Reading »
Africa Financial Grid Aims To Help Alleviate Poverty and Promote Development in Sub-Saharan Region Continue Reading »
Source: The Daily Star. Continue Reading »
The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) calls Kenya a world leader in fostering mobile phone banking and other ‘branchless’ banking services. The Government of Kenya and the Central Bank have shown a strong interest in branchless banking and have expressed their commitment to institute legal and regulatory changes that will support new technology-based products and services and enable increased outreach. Read more in “Notes on Regulation of Branchless Banking in Kenya“.
World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), supported by CO-OP Shared Branching’s technology and partners from Colorado and Ecuador, successfully launched the first international shared branching network in Quito, Ecuador. The new network, called COONECTA, connects credit union members via direct transaction capabilities in the United States and Ecuador, providing the more than 2 million Ecuadorians living and working in the United States with affordable access to their credit union accounts back home, as well as offering U.S. visitors to Ecuador the same convenience. Continue Reading »
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