Disha Microfin, an Indian microfinance institution (MFI), recently received a license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to open a “small finance bank” that it is launching under the name Fincare.
Category: South Asia, East Asia and Pacific
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Netherlands’ FMO Lending $5m to First MicroFinance Bank-Afghanistan to Support MSMEs
The Netherlands Development Finance Company, a government-backed institution also known by its Dutch acronym FMO, recently announced it will loan the local-currency equivalent of USD 5 million to The First MicroFinance Bank-Afghanistan (FMFB-A), which is owned by the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM), a unit of Switzerland-based Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) that provides microfinance services across ten different countries [1, 6].
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Cambodian Microfinance Association Members Refusing to Charge Clients Value-added Tax
The 82-member Cambodian Microfinance Association (CMA) recently announced that its affiliated microfinance institutions (MFIs) are declining to enforce the 10-percent value-added tax (VAT) that the country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) has levied on financial services.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IFC Planning Credit Bureau in Myanmar, Investing $13.5m in Fullerton Finance, Accion’s Early Dawn Microfinance, Maha Agriculture
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the US-based World Bank Group, recently announced it will loan a total of USD 13.5 million and provide related advisory services to three microfinance institutions in Myanmar.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Myanmar Finance International Borrows $2m from Maybank, Symbiotics for Microfinance
Myanmar Finance International Limited (MFIL), a microfinance institution owned by Myanmar Investments International Limited (MIIL), Myanmar Finance Company Limited (MFCL) and the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund), recently announced that it has secured a local-currency loan facility worth USD 1 million from Switzerland-based Symbiotics.
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.”
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microloan Delinquencies Rise from 0.5% to 11% Following Demonetization in India
India Ratings, a subsidiary of US-based Fitch Group, recently announced that its “0+ days delinquency index” increased from 0.45 percent to 10.82 percent in the four months following November 2016 and thus concluded that the Indian government’s demonetization had a significant negative effect on microlenders [1].
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation (GGAMF) Loans $6m to Proximity, BRAC, Vision Fund for Microlending in Myanmar
The Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation (GCAMF), a Luxembourg-based provider of financial services to social businesses, recently informed MicroCapital that it has committed to extending loans totaling the following amounts in phases over three years: the euro equivalent of USD 2.96 million to Myanmar’s Proximity Finance; the euro equivalent of USD 1.60 million to BRAC Myanmar; and the euro equivalent to USD 1.37 million to VisionFund Myanmar.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MicroFinanza Rating Issues 8 Institutional, Social, Client-protection Credentials to Microfinance Institutions in Asia, Latin America
During June, Italy’s MicroFinanza Rating (MFR) issued four microfinance institutional ratings. Ecuador’s Insotec earned a rating of BBB with a stable outlook.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Papua New Guinea Sets Gender Equity, Social Inclusion Policy for Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)
The government of Papua New Guinea (PNG), in partnership with the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), the government of Australia and the PNG-based Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI), recently released a gender equity and social inclusion policy for microfinance institutions in PNG.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: C-Quadrat’s Dual Return Vision Microfinance Funds Expand Lending to Myanmar
C-Quadrat Asset Management, an arm of Austrian fund manager C-Quadrat, recently informed MicroCapital that its Dual Return Vision Microfinance funds in May issued a loan in Myanmar for the first time.
MICROFINANCE PUBLICATION ROUND-UP: Financial Literacy, Gender Disparity in the Solomon Islands; Savings Groups’ Impact in Ghana, Malawi, Uganda; Financial Inclusion Survey in Vanuatu
“Case Study: SolTuna – Tuna Processing, Solomon Islands;” published by the International Finance Corporation; September 2016; 20 pages; available at:
http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/d4561543-cc39-4a9d-9963-26eb5ab4169c/soltuna_updated_May2017.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
This case study investigates the connections between financial literacy and the reduction of absenteeism and other problems at SolTuna, a tuna processing plant in the Solomon Islands.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Solomon Islands’ Government Sets Goal of 80% Electronic Payments by 2020
The government of the Solomon Islands recently announced it will attempt to shift to using “electronic payment channels for [80 percent of its] payments and receipts” by 2020.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IFC, FMO, SBI-FMO Invest $22m in Equity in Sri Lanka’s Sanasa Development Bank
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the US-based World Bank Group; the government-backed Netherlands Development Finance Company (which is also known by its Dutch acronym FMO); and Singapore-based SBI-FMO Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund recently placed equity investments totaling USD 22 million in Sri Lankan-based Sanasa Development Bank (SDB Bank).
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IFAD, Cambodian Government, Private Sector Investing $60m in Microfinance, Infrastructure Program to Help 15k Farming Families Expand Operations
The government of Cambodia recently announced it has commenced the first phase of a project intended to aid 15,000 small-scale farming families in growing their operations by “building infrastructure to help farmers, and offering special microfinance deals.”
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Solomon Islands’ National Provident Fund Launches youSave Retirement Savings Plan for Self-employed With Support from UN’s PFIP
The National Provident Fund, a government-backed retirement trust in the Solomon Islands, recently launched youSave, a savings plan designed to help self-employed islanders establish and contribute to retirement accounts as do “formally employed” citizens.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IFC, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to Invest $1.5b in Infrastructure, Microfinance, SMEs Over 5 Years
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of US-based World Bank Group, recently agreed to launch a multifaceted project in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a development institution of the Japanese government.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Women Leverage Microfinance to Create Agribusinesses in Fushun, China
From 2010 through 2017, the city of Fushun, in northeastern China, invested CNY 2.8 billion (USD 406 million) in a subsidized microcredit program for agriculture, reaching 57,000 female entrepreneurs, primarily those whose husbands live elsewhere for work.