Written by Annabel Vanroose and Bert D’Espallier, published by the Emile Bernheim Center Research Institute in Management Sciences at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management in September 2009, 41 pages, available at http://www.solvay.edu/EN/Research/Bernheim/documents/wp09040.pdf
This paper aims to determine the impact of formal banking sector development on several measures of performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs).
SKS Microfinance, an Indian microfinance institution (MFI) registered as a non-banking financial company (NBFC), reportedly has plans to apply for a commercial banking license. An unnamed source told Indian news agency, Press Trust of India, that “SKS Microfinance is likely to approach the Reserve Bank [of India] for a banking license once the guidelines are issued.”
According to microfinance industry officials in Cambodia, in the first quarter of 2010, non-performing loan (NPL) rates have remained mostly steady and loan disbursement by microfinance institutions (MFIs) has increased over the fourth quarter 2009.
The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), a microfinance investment fund based in Luxembourg, recently announced plans to extend a EUR 6 million (USD 8.1 million) credit line to Intesa Sanpaolo Banka d.d. BiH, a commercial bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina that is majority-owned by Intesa Sanpaolo Group of Italy.
The nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) has released its April 2010 e-newsletter highlighting recent and upcoming MIX activities, publications and upcoming microfinance events.
With the initial public offering (IPO) of SKS Microfinance, an Indian microfinance institution (MFI), expected to raise USD 250 million to USD 350 million for the MFI and its private equity (PE) investors, questions have been raised about the ethics of MFI investors profiting millions of dollars when their customers are poor.
After a joint examination exercise with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a slew of complaints from depositors of microfinance institutions (MFIs) that have shut down, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the country’s financial industry regulator, recently began a nationwide investigation of MFIs.
A recent article on Livemint.com, an Indian business newspaper owned by the Wall Street Journal, pointed to the growing tendency for individuals in India to invest in microfinance institutions (MFIs).
In a recent op-ed piece published in Nigeria’s online Daily Trust, Ms Ijeoma Kalu urges the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to tighten regulation of the microfinance industry and ensure “that only professionals are permitted to practice.”
The default rate for Pakistan’s microfinance institutions (MFIs) stands at two percent, while non-performing loans of commercial banks is at 12.2 percent, according to an article in Pakistan’s daily The News International.
The Ghana Microfinance Institutions Network (GHAMFIN), an informal network of institutions and individuals in the microfinance industry, recently expressed concern over the prevalence of unaccredited microfinance institutions (MFIs).
Event Name: Speaker’s Corner 36: Aligning Stakeholder Interests: Making MFI Transitions Work
Event Date: April 13 to April 15, 2010
Event Location: This is an online forum. To sign up for the discussion, visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VZFLY6M
Event Website: http://www.microlinks.org/sc/aligninginterests
See Our Comprehensive Event Calendar Here: http://microfinanceassociation.ning.com/events
Mwai Kibaki, the President of Kenya, speaking at the opening of the 2010 Africa/Middle East Regional Microcredit Summit being held in Nairobi, called for microfinance institutions (MFIs) to provide a broader range of services to better improve their clients’ economic positions.
The Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network, an international organization with the goal of connecting microenterprise practitioners, has announced the launch of its Suite of Tools for Microfinance Association Professionals.
The Working Group of the International Migrants Remittances Observatory for Least Developed Countries (IMRO), in partnership with several public and private organizations, has established the World Diaspora Fund (WDF) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Women’s World Banking (WWB), an organization that provides technical and advisory services to its global network of microfinance institutions (MFIs), has partnered with Wharton’s Aresty Institute for Executive Education to host its first advanced leadership course for microfinance professionals in March.
Mohammed Yunus, a 2006 Nobel Prize winner for championing microcredit and the founder of Grameen Bank, a microfinance institution (MFI) located in Bangladesh, recently was reported to have said that the dearth of microcredit laws in many African countries is preventing access to loans for millions of the continent’s poor people.
A recent guest blog post on the New York Times newspaper website titled, “Evaluating Microfinance When Randomization Isn’t an Option,” covers an alternative evaluation method that Michael Frank, the Director of Finance for the Mali Health Organizing Project, has proposed, which he hopes will allow him to evaluate his organization’s microfinance program without “breaking the bank”.