The Hong Kong-based wealth management company Futu Holdings is adding Malaysia to the list of countries whose residents can access its investment platform Moomoo, following the firm’s local subsidiary receiving preliminary regulatory approval for the service. Moomoo allows
Search Results for: "financial education"
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: BBVA Global Financial Education Plan Seeks to Reach 50m People
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), a global financial services group based in Spain, recently updated its Global Financial Education Plan, seeking to engage 1 million additional people in training sessions and provide related online material to a further 50 million people over the course of three years. The content aligns with
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: “Digital Pro Mujer” Offers Financial Education, Digital Literacy Training, Mentoring, Loans, Mobile Money to Women in Latin America
The US-based social enterprise Pro Mujer recently launched “Digital Pro Mujer,” targeting southeastern Mexico, but open to women entrepreneurs and employees across Latin America. The platform offers a range of services, including digital wallets as well as virtual education and mentoring to help users develop digital and financial skills. The digital wallets offer services such as savings
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fintech Zeepay of Ghana, Dutch Government, SNV, UNCDF Partner on Financial Education, Remittances via EU-funded GrEEn Program
Zeepay, a financial technology (fintech) company with offices in Ghana and the UK, recently partnered with the embassy of the Netherlands in Ghana, the Dutch NGO Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers (SNV) and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) as part of the EU-funded Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn) program. The goal is to serve “youth, women and
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: UN’s PFIP, Catalpa Launching 6-month Pilot of Olgeta, Financial Education App for Young Women in Rural Solomon Islands
Catalpa, a development organization based in Timor-Leste, is partnering with the Pacific Financial Inclusion Program (PFIP), a UN effort based in Fiji, to pilot-test an app called Olgeta, which will provide education via mobile phones to young women in rural parts of the Solomon Islands. The service will cover topics “such as leadership, financial literacy and digital marketing,” including “how to budget, bank, and save…”. The six-month pilot will target the 120 people served by two
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Societe Generale’s MobiasBanca, European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) Partner on “My First Card” Financial Education in Moldova
MobiasBanca, the Moldovan subsidiary of France-based Groupe Societe Generale, has been funded by the development facility of the Luxembourg-domiciled European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) to support financial education for youth in Moldova. Through the “My First Card” campaign, youth have been trained to
SPECIAL REPORT: Randomized Controlled Trial Shows Significant Impact from Financial Education in Uganda
On 
the first day of conference sessions at European Microfinance Week (EMW), Esther Nanjovu of German development agency GIZ demonstrated a portion of a two-hour financial training program that has been shown to benefit attendees in several ways. The program is participatory, with stations addressing personal financial management, savings, investment, debt management and the usage of financial services providers. The personal financial management component is taught using a display board on which learners can place and move cards representing various expenses and income sources. As a team, approximately 25 learners work together to create a prioritized list of expenses to help them appreciate the significance of their choices. In some cases, they even argue over whether certain cards – such as sports betting – are expenses or
SPECIAL REPORT: Matching Rules of Thumb with Clients in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Financial Education at EMW
Today at European Microfinance Week (EMW), Ewa Bankowska of the Microfinance Centre (MFC), a Poland-based network of approximately 100 microfinance institutions (MFIs), described her organization’s response to lackluster results from the financial education it has delivered to 200,000 people in 22 countries over 15 years.
Evidence suggests that changes in financial behavior are more likely when learners are given simple “rules of thumb,” such as putting a euro in a jar after every shopping trip. Based on this idea, MFC is developing a system to determine which rules of thumb should be suggested to which clients. The organization has drafted an online tool with 13 questions that categorize users into one of four categories. Based on the person’s category, she is given a
MICROFINANCE PAPER ROUND-UP: Achieving SDGs by Supporting SMEs, Engaging Youth in Financial Services via Social Media, Effects of Financial Education on Credit Card Usage
“SMEs and SDGs: Supporting Small and Medium Enterprises to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” by Maria Teresa Zappia and Lisa Sherk, published by BlueOrchard, November 2017, 28 pages, available at http://www.blueorchard.com/smes-sdgs-supporting-small-medium-enterprises-achieve-sustainable-development-goals-insights-blueorchard-survey/
In this report, the authors explore how improving the business climate for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), may help achieve many of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 guiding principles intended to help combat poverty, protect the environment, and encourage economic and political stability.
Ms Zappia and Ms Sherk surveyed financial institutions that lend to SMEs in the Caucasus, Central and South America, East Asia and
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Netherlands’ FMO Lending $7.5m to ASA Pakistan for Microloans, Financial Education for 50k Women
The Netherlands Development Finance Company, a government-backed institution also known by its Dutch acronym FMO, recently announced it will loan USD 7.5 million to the Association for Social Advancement (ASA) Pakistan, a microlending unit of Mauritius-based ASA International Holding, “to provide funding and financial education to about 50,000 women and their families.”
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Aflatoun to Host Annual International Meeting on Social, Financial Education, November 2-4, 2016, The Hague, the Netherlands
Event Name: Aflatoun International Meeting 2016: Social and Financial Education Contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Event Date: November 2 – November 4, 2016
Event Location: World Trade Center, Prinses Beatrixlaan 582, The Hague, the Netherlands
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: India’s Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS), MicroSave Launch Financial Education Pilot Program for Self-Help Groups (SHGs)
The Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS), a program of the local government’s Rural Development Department, and MicroSave, a financial inclusion consulting firm headquartered in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, recently launched a financial education pilot program in the Bero, Khuntipani and Manoharpur blocks of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Visa, China Foundation for Development of Financial Education, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to Promote Financial Literacy, Education
Visa Incorporated, a US-based payment technology company, recently announced partnerships with two organizations to promote financial inclusion in China: the China Foundation for Development of Financial Education (CFDFE), which is affiliated with China’s central bank, and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), a government-backed organization.
SPECIAL REPORT: Narda Sotomayor on Regulating Microfinance via Proportionality, Financial Education and Mobile Money in Peru
MicroCapital: Can you tell us a bit about your talk planned for European Microfinance Week on “balancing financial inclusion with market stability”?
Narda Sotomayor: A key element to achieve this balance is the principle of proportionality, under which regulations vary based on the risks associated with the product or service in question. For instance, for microloans for businesses with overall debt below PEN 20,000 (USD 7,000), the required documentation is minimal, and loan provision requirements are based only on the number of days any loans are overdue. The lender has the freedom to establish prices to cover its costs, such that institutional sustainability is guaranteed. It was determined that anti-money-laundering rules were making it too costly to open deposit accounts for the poor, mainly because of the heavy burden of “know-your-customer” documentation.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Citi Foundation Donates $2m to 7 Initiatives for Financial Education, Capacity Building in India
The Citi Foundation, the charitable arm of US-based financial services provider Citigroup that promotes financial inclusion and other initiatives, recently announced that it has issued the first disbursement from its “Innovation Grant Program”[1] with the aim of increasing its impact in India.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to Encourage Banks to Deploy Rural Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs), Use Unclaimed Funds for Financial Education
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central banking authority, reportedly has initiated a program under which banks are requested to install an unspecified number of automatic teller machines (ATMs) in rural areas that will dispense bank notes in relatively small denominations.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: 3k Moldovan Remittance Recipients Save $7m After European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Financial Education Program
The UK-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a multilateral institution that finances development projects, has initiated a financial education project in Moldova that is aimed at providing recipients of remittances with improved financial skills to manage the money they receive as well as to encourage them to open bank accounts [1].
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Annual Conference on Financial Education, April 3 – 5, 2013, Orlando, Florida, USA
Event Name: Annual Conference on Financial Education
Event Date: April 3 – 5, 2013
Event Location: Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista, Orlando, Florida, USA