The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently issued limits on daily cash withdrawals by individuals and corporate customers of NGN 150,000 (USD 962) and NGN 1 million (USD 6,417), respectively, effective June 1, 2012. Continue Reading »

VisionFund, the microfinance subsidiary of US-based Christian relief organization World Vision, has released its 2010 annual review. VisionFund has cut back the size of its paper report in favor of presenting its annual review in multiple mediums such as online and through Apple’s app store for access via iPhone. Continue Reading »

MicroPlanet Technologies Incorporated, a US-based nonprofit that serves the technology needs of microfinance institutions (MFIs), has announced that Friendship Bridge, an MFI serving 13,000 women in Guatemala, is the first customer for its hybrid software-as-a-service (SaaS) core banking software platform. Continue Reading »

The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC) in Jordan, with assistance from KfW, a German government-owned development bank, recently developed a new policy framework for the microfinance industry.  Continue Reading »

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is reported to be permitting microfinance institutions (MFIs) to accept gold as collateral to secure microfinance loans. International: The News, a Pakistan-based news source, speculates that SBP has changed its stance on the issue in an effort to boost the issuance of loans following the floods that greatly affected Pakistan in 2010. In a circular reportedly issued to all MFIs in the country, SBP stated, “the negative growth [in 2010] was mainly due to the devastating floods during the third quarter of 2010 that gripped most parts of the country…Moreover, an overall difficult macroeconomic environment continues to challenge the credit growth of microfinance players” [1]. Continue Reading »

responsAbility Global Microfinance Fund (rAGMF), a microfinance investment vehicle (MIV) managed by responsAbility Social Investments AG (responsAbility), recently reported to MicroCapital that it has loaned the equivalent of USD 2.8 million to four microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cambodia and Indonesia. responsAbility is an investment company based in Switzerland that invests in MFIs and other MIVs. Continue Reading »

By Binh T Nguyen and Robert Vogel, published by Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2011, 126 pages, available at: http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.9.51104/ Continue Reading »

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions (Swiss Re), a reinsurer and financial services group based in Zurich, Switzerland, have partnered to further develop the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) [1]. Index insurance is a product that covers farmers against presumed crop failure based on measurable factors such as if rainfall is below a predetermined threshold. GIIF was launched by IFC in 2009 as a regional platform intended “to develop agricultural insurance systems in West African countries including Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso” [2]. Continue Reading »

The Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR), an 84-member organization that was established in 2007 to build the capacity of the microfinance industry in Rwanda, has cautioned microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Rwanda regarding the risks of offering the same financial products to all clients. Continue Reading »

The government of Peru recently passed legislation that recognizes the nonprofit status of credit unions and other cooperatives, exempting their transactions from a sales tax. La Federación Nacional de Cooperativas de Ahorro y Crédito del Perú (FENACREP), a Peruvian member of the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), has been working with a coalition of local advocacy groups to get the bill passed since its introduction to the legislature in December 2009. (No further information on the sales tax-exemption bill is available at the time this brief was published.) WOCCU is a US-based global trade association of credit unions. Continue Reading »

Event Name: Panel Discussion: Wealth and Health: Leveraging Microfinance for Better Health Outcomes

Event Date: June 13, 2011

Event Time: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

Event Location: Online or at the Diplomat Ballroom, Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street NW, Washington, DC, USA Continue Reading »

According to the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP), an association of approximately 700 banks that aims to promote rural development, the rural banking sector in the Philippines is expected to consist of fewer but stronger banks as mergers and consolidations continue. “Mergers and consolidations that are happening will result in fewer rural banks that are stronger in terms of resources,” said Tomas S Gomez IV, spokesman of RBAP, according to Business World. Continue Reading »

By Mahmoud El-Gamal, Mohamed El-Komi, Dean Karlan, Adam Osman; published by Rice University Department of Economics; April 2011; 27 pages; available at http://www.uh.edu/~achin/workshop/EMF-04-11.pdf Continue Reading »

Event Name: TBLI Conference Europe 2011

Event Location: Grange St Paul’s Hotel, London, United Kingdom

Event Date: November 10 & November 11, 2011

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

By Jonathan Conning and Jonathan Morduch; published by Financial Access Initiative (FAI) at New York University’s Robert F Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and Hunter College; April 8, 2011; 30 pages; available at: http://financialaccess.org/sites/default/files/Microfinance%20&%20Social%20Investment_Conning&Morduch.pdf Continue Reading »

The G20 SME (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise) Finance Online Consultations are now ongoing through June 17 to help shape the policy recommendations of the SME Finance Sub-Group, which was launched as part of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion to improve access to financial services for the poor. The Group of Twenty (G20) was established in 1999 to bring together finance ministers and central bank governors of “systematically important” industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy. Continue Reading »

Since its initial investment in SKS Microfinance, an India-based microfinance institution (MFI), Sequoia Capital, a US-based venture capital firm, has experienced significant gains on paper followed by partial losses of those gains. Continue Reading »