Event Name: TBLI Conference Nordic 2015
Event Date: June 15-16, 2015
Event Location: Ovnhallen Porcelænshaven 20, Copenhagen Business School; Copenhagen, Denmark
Summary of Event: This conference will include panels on topics such as low-carbon investment strategies, how asset owners can address climate change, investing in sustainable agriculture and food production, and social impact strategies for banks.
Event Name: Social Capital Markets “SOCAP15″
Event Date: October 6-9, 2015
Event Location: Fort Mason Center; San Francisco, California, USA
Cost: Regular admission to the event costs USD 1,395 plus a USD 9.95 processing fee. Registrations completed prior to March 26, 2015, are eligible for a discount of USD 600.
Event Name: TBLI Conference Asia 2015
Event Date: April 29-30, 2015
Event Location: INSEAD Asia Campus, Singapore
Cost: The standard cost to attend is SGD 795 (USD 716), with discounts offered to investors, NGO representatives and students, as well as to all attendees who register by April 3, 2015.
The Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank Group has approved USD 60 million in new financing to be disbursed by the International Development Association (IDA), a lending arm of the World Bank, to support its ongoing Housing Finance Project (HFP) in Tanzania, which seeks to support affordable housing in the urbanizing country by providing “medium- and long-term liquidity to lenders.”
Event Name: The Sixth Caribbean Microfinance Forum: Solutions for Inclusive Growth
Event Date: July 6-9, 2015
Event Location: Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, Miami Airport & Convention Centre; Miami, Florida, United States of America
Cost: The fee to attend the forum is USD 600. A reduced rate of USD 475 is available for attendees who register by April 1, 2015, and a discounted rate of USD 200 is available for one-day registration.
Event Name: Mobile Money & Digital Payments Americas
This event will be held at the same time and venue as the Prepaid Americas and Transport Ticketing Americas events.
Event Date: March 24-25, 2015
Event Location: Marquis Reforma Hotel; Mexico City, Mexico
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a multilateral financial institution that operates in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and North Africa, has expanded its support for on-lending for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Tajikistan with multi-currency loans to FINCA Tajikistan (FINCA TJK) and AccessBank Tajikistan (AccessBank) in amounts equivalent to USD 4 million and USD 5 million, respectively.
“VG Microfinance – Invest Nr. 1 GmbH Fund Assessment Study;” by Rocio Cavazos and Melanie Meslay; 2015; 33 pages; available at https://www.db.com/usa/content/en/vg-microfinance-invest-1.html
This study presents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of VG Microfinance-Invest Nr. 1 GmbH, a fund launched by Germany’s Deutsche Bank in 2007 with the support of the German government’s Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau Entwicklungsbank (KfW) that provided subordinated debt to 21 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 15 different countries.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based multilateral institution, has partnered with UniCredit Bank Banja Luka (UB), the unit of Italy’s UniCredit Group that operates in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to launch EBRD’s “Western Balkans Women in Business” program with a EUR 2 million (USD 2.3 million) credit provided to UB.
CGAP (The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), a US-based nonprofit that aims to facilitate the expansion of financial access, recently selected the following financial service providers to receive an unspecified level of support from human-centered design firms to improve their digital financial services for small-scale farmers: (1) Amret Microfinance, a Cambodian microfinance institution; (2) the Zimbabwean arm of South African mobile network operator Econet Wireless and US-based relief and development nonprofit Mercy Corps; (3) myAgro, a nonprofit organization in Mali that sells agricultural inputs via mobile technology; and (4) Urwego Opportunity Bank (UOB), a microfinance institution that was created as a result of a merger between Urwego Community Banking and Opportunity International Bank of Rwanda [1]. While the Econet-Mercy partnership will engage human-centered design firm Ideo.org, the other three programs have not yet released the names of the organizations with which they will work.
Event Name: Responsible Digital Finance: Global and Local Perspectives on Emerging Opportunities and Risks
Event Date: March 16, 2015
Event Location: Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Frankfurt, Germany
Cost: There is no fee to attend the event, although participants must register in advance.
Summary of Event: Attendees will discuss the opportunities and challenges of implementing digital finance services in developing countries, such as the need for transparent and safe digital products tailor-made for low-income segments of the population living in remote areas.
This opinion piece was contributed by David MacDougall, a consultant based in the US city of New York.
Microfinance inspires optimism. Investors – especially private equity investors – anticipate handsome returns; aid agencies see strong social impact; and microfinance institution (MFI) managers are certain they can grow themselves out of every tight situation. While microfinance can play an important role in development, most MFIs nevertheless are relatively simple financial institutions that need to be grounded in sound market and business principles rather than pie-in-the-sky expectations. These “Business 101” principles, which may sound like common sense truisms, in my experience, have not trickled down to many MFIs. In over 10 years of examining the viability of MFI business models as an analyst and risk manager, I have seen decision makers fail again and again to do reality checks. What’s still urgently needed is sound market analysis and professional risk management.
“Annual Survey 2014, e-MFP Action Group of Investors in Tier 2/3 MFIs;” prepared by Gabriela Erice, Daniel Rozas and e-MFP in collaboration with the e-MFP Action Group of Investors in Tier-2/3 Microfinance Institutions; published by the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP); 2015; 22 pages, available at http://www.e-mfp.eu/sites/default/files/resources/2015/01/Annual%20Survey%202014%20-%20final.pdf
The “Investors in Tier 2/3 MFIs Action Group” of the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), a Luxembourg-based network of approximately 130 microfinance organizations and individuals, has released the results of its third annual survey detailing the analysis of investments of the action group members for the year 2013 [1].
Etisalat, a United Arab Emirates-based telecommunications services provider, and First Bank of Nigeria (FBN), a commercial bank based in the Nigerian state of Lagos, recently fused FBN’s “Firstmonie Mobile Money,” a service that allows customers to access their FirstBank accounts as well as transfer funds through their mobile devices [2], and Etisalat’s “Easywallet,” a service allowing money transfers, airtime top-up, and payment for goods and services via mobile phones [3].
The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the US-based Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), recently announced that it has partnered with Asociación Dominicana para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (ADOPEM), a microfinance institution (MFI) in the Dominican Republic, and Nestlé Dominican Republic, a unit of the Switzerland-based multinational food and beverage company, to develop a project that will give low-income women in the country an opportunity to operate micro-franchises to distribute Nestlé products in their communities [1].
“Financial Liberalization and Rural Banking in India;” published by the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata; 2014; 29 pages; available at http://www.networkideas.org/feathm/dec2004/Conference_Papers/Financial_Liberalisation_Rural_Banking_India_VKR.pdf
This paper examines the effects of the recent trend of financial liberalization in India, including its impact on banking policy and the structure of rural economies in the country.
WestBridge Capital, an investment company with offices in India, Mauritius and the United States, recently invested a total of INR 98 crore (USD 16 million) to acquire 20 percent of the shares of Aptus Value Housing Finance, an India-based company that seeks to provide affordable housing finance, primarily for middle-income, self-employed customers [1].
Credit Suisse, a Swiss global financial services company with operations in 50 countries, has agreed to donate an undisclosed sum to Opportunity International, a US-based nonprofit providing microfinance in 22 countries, to launch a three-year program entitled “Empowering Generational Change Through Education” that focuses on lending for education initiatives.