MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Financial Times Article Discusses Increasing Private Sector Activity in Microfinance

In a recent Financial Times article, “Private sector goes into development finance,” the British daily discusses the concept of development dollars acting as a catalyst to engage much larger levels of private investment in financial services in poor countries. In addition to covering the need for a wider range of services beyond loans, such as savings, the article cites more creative offerings. One example is a program of the Common Fund for Commodities, a Netherlands-based organization with a membership of 106 nations and ten international institutions, that “allows small-scale farms to deposit their produce in a warehouse, receive a down-payment of 60 percent of the expected price of the produce and then wait for prices to improve before selling it.”

Sources and Resources:

Financial Times article:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c0278e94-ed90-11de-ba12-00144feab49a.html

Common Fund for Commodities
http://www.common-fund.org/

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