SPECIAL REPORT: Minimizing Setbacks for Women, Girls Under COVID-19; Taking Advantage of the Pandemic to Liberalize Regulation, Boost Access to Digital Financial Services

Mary European Microfinance PlatformEllen Iskenderian of the US-based NGO Women’s World Banking (WWB) spoke today, the closing day of European Microfinance Week, about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls. Of the challenges they face, she said “COVID didn’t create these gaps, but it shines a bright light on the fissures, and we don’t want to see these grow larger.” As an example, she cited the strides made in recent years in terms of enrolling girls in primary education. She called this the single most powerful tool for creating development impact. However, one of the first things she has seen families in developing countries doing in response to COVID-19 is taking their daughters out of school.

On the positive side, Ms Iskenderian noted “a silver lining, that

SPECIAL REPORT: European Microfinance Week Action Group Meeting: Investors Not Incentivizing MFIs Sufficiently re Measuring Social Performance

DuringEuropean Microfinance Platform today’s opening sessions of European Microfinance Week, e-MFP’s Investor Action Group met to discuss social performance measurement within microfinance institutions (MFIs). Calum Scott of US-based NGO Opportunity International described his organization’s efforts to work with MFIs to measure client outcomes. He specified that Opportunity generally does not seek to measure client impact, as that has proven too resource-intensive for its purposes. However, he argued that, “The pandemic doesn’t make outcomes data less important. If anything it makes it more important to know if and how your products are helping clients.” Of Opportunity’s partners, 95 percent use

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Executives of Uganda Microfinance Support Centre Jailed on Charges of Fraud, Embezzlement of $3m

Leaders of the Ugandan government’s Microfinance Support Centre (MSC) recently were released on bail after being held in prison on charges relating to the theft of UGX 10.8 billion (USD 2.9 million) that had been supplied by the Ugandan government for disbursal to the Uganda Teachers’ Cooperative Savings and Credit Union (UTC). The allegations consist of embezzlement and conspiracy to defraud,

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Never Waste a Crisis: How Sub-Saharan African Insurers Are Being Affected by, and Are Responding to, COVID-19;” by Lucia Schlemmer, Kate Rinehart-Smit, Jeremy Gray

This paper analyzes the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the insurance market in sub-Saharan Africa and the effectiveness of the responses of insurers, brokers and regulators. The authors conducted 32 interviews with representatives of insurers, insurance technology (insurtech) firms, reinsurers, and insurance and broker associations across 18 markets in the region to assess: (1) the impact that the pandemic has had on insurers’ daily internal operations; (2) the impacts on new product development and how the insured move through current processes; (3) the impact on insurers’ and customers’ finances; and

SPECIAL REPORT: Stakeholders Fearful, But with Tentative Hope Too in e-MFP’s Just-published “COVID-19 Financial Inclusion Compass”

TheEuropean Microfinance Platform European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) has published the COVID-19 Financial Inclusion Compass, a special edition of the Compass series specifically focused on the current challenges, medium-term priorities, concerns, opportunities and forecasts for a sector facing probably the greatest crisis in its modern history.

The world – the financial inclusion sector included – is in the midst of twin crises: (1) a novel and highly contagious virus with no vaccine or cure that shows no signs of abating; and (2) a genuinely global recession as a result of the unavoidable containment measures put in place. The situation is uncertain and dynamic. Six months from now, the landscape will

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: African Development Bank (AfDB) Joins NASDAQ Sustainable Bonds Network with 10 Listings, Including “Fight COVID-19 Social Bond”

The African Development Bank (AfDB), a multilateral institution that works to alleviate poverty in Africa, recently joined the NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) Sustainable Bonds Network (NSBN), an online platform promoting bonds that fund projects addressing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. As of July 2020, 10 of AfDB’s bonds are

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) Offers Covidcap.com Database of $1t in Cash Relief for Small Businesses Impacted by COVID-19

The US-based Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) recently created a database of funding sources for small businesses needing assistance because of the COVID-19 pandemic. These listings include 550 funding sources in 62 countries offering a total of approximately USD 1 trillion. This funding takes the form of loans and grants and is available to

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: 9 Microfinance Investment Vehicles Coordinate Response to Effects of Pandemic on MFIs, MSMEs in 80 Countries

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to reduce its health impacts have had major negative economic consequences for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). These enterprises thus are having difficulty repaying the loans they have outstanding from microfinance institutions (MFIs) and other retail lenders, leading to liquidity challenges for these lenders. In response, nine investors in these lenders, which have an aggregate of USD 15 billion invested in 80 low- and middle-income countries, are working together to support the long-term viability of the retail financial services providers (FSPs).

The nine investors, which manage a range of microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) and other funds seeking to generate positive social impact, have arrived at a non-binding agreement to

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Reserve Bank of India Moves to Increase Liquidity for MSMEs, Farmers Impacted by COVID-19 via MFIs, NBFCs

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s central banking authority, recently moved to increase the supply of credit to farmers and micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) via microfinance institutions (MFIs) and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs). These steps include

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: World Bank to Loan $300m to Indonesia for Financial Sector Reform, Including Promoting Long-term Savings, Disaster Microinsurance

The World Bank recently agreed to loan USD 300 million to the government of Indonesia for “financial sector reforms that will help sustain economic growth and achieve the country’s shared prosperity goals.” Planned strategies include increasing the range of

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Development Finance Institutions Collaborate to Add Gender Metrics to Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) IRIS+ System

A group of development finance institutions (DFIs) recently collaborated with the US-based nonprofit Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) to improve the way they track the results of their investments in women in developing countries. The outcome is an expansion of GIIN’s Impact Reporting and Investment Standards Plus (IRIS+), which provides a framework to “identify, measure and manage the social and environmental impact of investors’ actions and report their impact” as well as provide investors with “impact data” that can inform their investment decisions.

The new metrics are grouped into approaches such as gender-specific services; increasing equality through financial inclusion; and

SPECIAL REPORT: In Democratic Republic of Congo, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) Notch Profitable Year After 2017 Losses, but Concerns Remain that SACCOs “May Disappear” from DRC

According to data from the Central Bank of Congo, the microfinance sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) includes 102 microfinance institutions (MFIs), of which 82 are savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) and 20 are organized as for-profit firms, such as limited liability companies. These institutions

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Handbook on Consumer Protection for Inclusive Finance,” published by Center for Financial Inclusion, New Perimeter

“Handbook on Consumer Protection for Inclusive Finance,” by the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) at Accion and New Perimeter, October 2019, 91 pages, available at https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/handbook-on-consumer-protection-for-inclusive-finance

This handbook highlights the importance of having a robust legal and regulatory framework in place to ensure the protection of low-income consumers of financial services via new delivery channels. It is intended to supplement the seven Consumer Protection Principles developed by CFI’s Smart Campaign by highlighting legal

SPECIAL REPORT: MFR Launching Atlas Platform to Unify Data on Financial Performance, Social Performance, Pricing, Client Protection: a Preview at European Microfinance Week

Today, on European Microfinance Platformthe opening day of European Microfinance Week in Luxembourg, Lucia Spaggiari and Aldo Moauro of MicroFinanza Rating (MFR) described Atlas, a platform for collecting and analyzing data on microfinance. Atlas offers data on financial performance, social performance, pricing and client protection. The data sources include a range of data types from MFR, as well as pricing data from the now-closed NGO MicroFinance Transparency. These cover about 550 financial services providers (FSPs), including microbanks, financial technology (fintech) lenders, and

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Gender Discrimination in Small Business Lending. Evidence from a Lab-in-the-field Experiment in Turkey,” published by EBRD

By J Michelle Brock and Ralph De Haas, published by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, September 2019, 45 pages, available at https://www.ebrd.com/documents/oce/gender-discrimination-in-small-business-lending-evidence-from-a-lab-in-the-field-experiment-in-turkey.pdf

This experiment involved presenting 334 loan officers in Turkey with eight actual loan applications. Each loan officer was asked to decide whether to accept or deny the application, as well as whether the loan applicant would be required to seek a guarantor

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Information Exchange to Discontinue MIX Market, Focus on Financial Technology (Fintech), Agricultural Finance

The US-based nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) recently announced that it will focus exclusively on “catalytic data initiatives” in financial technology (fintech), digital finance and agricultural finance. The NGO will stop adding to

MICROFINANCE EVENT: European Microfinance Week; November 20-22, 2019; Luxembourg

ThisEuropean Microfinance Platform event opens with a day of meetings on various topics, including the Human Capacity Development Action Group and the Green Inclusive & Climate Smart Finance Action Group. The following two days include sessions such as “Strengthening Resilience to Climate Change Through Financial Inclusion,” “Protecting the Working Poor in the 21st Century Through Responsible Finance” and “Responsible