MetLife Foundation, the philanthropic unit of US-based insurer MetLife, recently agreed to donate USD 5.4 million to US-based microfinance NGO Accion for an effort called Building Financial Capabilities and Strengthening Institutions through Customer-Centered Innovations. The project includes: (1) partnering with the Microfinance Centre, a Poland-based nonprofit network, to create and share tools for financial service providers to use in identifying and addressing client barriers to “financial well-being;” (2) identifying and partnering with six financial institutions in Latin America to create “innovations that drive usage and improve financial capabilities;” and (3) continuing Accion’s work with entrepreneurs in Myanmar via Dawn Microfinance.
During 2016, MetLife Foundation disbursed USD 43 million to 219 grantees, mostly in the financial inclusion arena.
MetLife provides employee benefits, insurance and other financial services in approximately 40 countries.
The Microfinance Centre is a resource center based in Poland that connects 107 organizations from 35 countries in an effort to promote “responsible microfinance services.”
Dawn, which lends to low-income women in living in urban areas, was created by US-based NGO Save the Children in 2002 and has since been acquired by US-based NGO Accion. Dawn has total assets of USD 14 million, a gross loan portfolio of USD 12 million and deposits of USD 930,000 as of 2016.
The mission of Accion is to help financial services providers deliver “affordable products” to those who are not served well by the financial sector. Founded in 1961, Accion partners with 90 institutions in 40 countries as of 2018. As of 2016, Accion and its partners held an aggregate active loan portfolio of USD 8.4 billion and USD 4.5 billion in deposits for 5.9 million clients.
Sources and Additional Resources:
Accion press release
https://www.accion.org/content/accion-and-metlife-foundation-announce-expanded-partnership-advance-financial-inclusion-1
MetLife
https://www.metlife.com/
Dawn’s profile on the Microfinance Information Exchange
https://www.themix.org/mixmarket/profiles/dawn
Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at http://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.
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