Event Name: Client Protection Certification Program
Event Dates:
• Spanish: October 25, 2011, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm eastern US time
• English: October 26, 2011, 10:00 am – 11:30 am eastern US time
• French: October 28, 2011, 9:00 am – 11:30 am eastern US time
Event Location: Online
ACCION International (ACCION), a private, US-based nonprofit organization with a global network of microfinance institutions (MFIs), recently issued two standby letters of credit (SBLC) totaling USD 1.5 million for two of its Indian partner microfinance institutions (MFIs) to secure loan facilities.
The Smart Campaign, a global initiative to improve accountability regarding client protection in the microfinance industry, recently announced a plan to launch a certification process that will enable microfinance institutions (MFIs) worldwide to verify their commitment to the Campaign’s core “Client Protection Principles” through third-party assessors.
Muthoot Fincorp, a finance company serving retail and institutional customers in India, and ACCION International, a US-based nonprofit with affiliated microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 23 countries, have joined together in an effort to increase lending in India’s microfinance sector.
ACCION International (ACCION), a private, US-based nonprofit organization with a global network of microfinance institutions (MFIs), has announced that Philanthropedia, an organization that evaluates the effectiveness of nonprofits, ranked it highest among microfinance organizations.
In a recent interview, Frontier Investments Group Managing Director Monica Brand discusses the sub-sectors within the microfinance investment industry in which Frontier Investments seeks to invest.
Swadhaar FinServe Private Limited, a Mumbai-based microfinance institution (MFI) with total assets of USD 2.1 million as of 2008, recently announced that it will receive INR 27.5 crore (equivalent to USD 5.9 million) in equity from several different investor organizations and private investors.
Amid increasing demand for capital in India’s microfinance industry and growing interest of equity investors, concerns exist such as valuation bubbles and whether growth can be sustained were discussed at the recent “Microfinance Cracking the Capital Markets Conference & Investment Marketplace” held in New Delhi.
In response to the upcoming IPO (initial public offering) of SKS Microfinance, an Indian microfinance institution (MFI) with more than 3.5 million borrowers, Mr Michael Schlein, President and CEO of ACCION International, and Mr Michael Chu, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and former CEO of ACCION, discuss the role of microfinance and the capital markets in fighting poverty in a Forbes magazine article.
EB-ACCION Microfinance, a microfinance institution (MFI) formed by ACCION International, a nonprofit organization with partner MFIs in over 20 countries, and Ecobank, a pan-African bank with a network of over 500 branches in 27 countries, recently launched its first two branches in Cameroon.
ACCION International, a nonprofit organization with partner microfinance institutions (MFIs) in over 20 countries, has announced the inauguration of ACCION Microcredit China (AMC), an MFI located in Chifeng Prefecture, Inner Mongolia, China.
ACCION International recently announced that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has approved its application to establish ACCION Microfinancas, a new microfinance organization in Amazonas, a state in northern Brazil.
ACCION International recently invested USD 500,000 for a 49.5 percent equity stake in Saija Finance Pvt Ltd, [4] a microfinance institution (MFI) based in Northern India that started in April 2008. The investment was made through ACCION International’s ACCION Gateway Fund. [3] Saija is the fund’s fourth investment in India. Other recent investments in Indian MFIs include Swadhaar FinServe, [5] which caters to the urban poor, Lok Capital, [6] which serves social enterprises, and United Villages, [7] which focuses on the rural poor.
Source: Microfinance Gateway.
A recent report by Mr Matthew Brodsky on the Risk and Insurance portal entitled ‘Microinsurance Has Big Upside’ [1] discusses the vast potential of the microinsurance market. Monica Brand, principal director of the Gateway Microfinance Innovation Fund at Boston-based ACCION International [2], was quoted as stating that microinsurance ‘is taking off in the sense that the commercial insurance is seeing what the commercial banking industry saw … that there’s a huge gap’ in the market.
In an article in the Economist magazine entitled ‘Froth at the bottom of the pyramid: Is microfinance going the same way as subprime mortgages’ [1], the Economist continues the controversial debate on the ‘microfinance bubble’ that was initiated by a series of provocative articles on the Wall Street Journal and a subsequent blog on the Reuter’s website. These articles have been discussed in previous Microcapital.Org publications [2], [3], [4]. The Economist draws our attention to a view put forward recently by Mr Vikram Akula, founder of India’s SKS Microfinance [5], who expressed disappointment at the recent ‘unbalanced and misleading’ views on microfinance investments and ‘absurd’ sweeping generalisations drawn from anecdotal evidence in one neighbourhood. The Economist reminds us that SKS is about to go public in a ‘doubtless lucrative’ IPO but the views of Mr Akula resonate with the views of other participants in the microfinance sector. Mr Alvaro Rodriguez, former chairman of ACCION International [6] and now chairman of Compartamos Banco [7], finds it hard to see how there can be a ‘bubble’ when, according to estimates, ‘there are currently 100 million microfinance clients out of one billion poor people who want access to financial services’. He added that competition among investors may generate a ‘gold rush’ and lead to ‘frothy lending’ in some instances but stated that competition is a good way to introduce innovation, greater efficiency, better products and pricing into any industry, a development he added that will ultimately benefit the microfinance customers.
Source: The Philippine Star.
Event Name: Encuentro Centroamericano de Microfinanzas
Date: September 9 -11, 2009
Location: Real InterContinental Hotel, San Salvador, El Salvador
See Our Comprehensive Event Calendar Here: http://microfinanceassociation.ning.com/events