Mind the Gap: bankable approaches to increase access to finance.
September, 30 2006
Amsterdam - The central questions of the conference How can private sector approaches make a wider range of financial products available to a larger group of people? What are the successful business cases, and what lessons have been learned? What is the role of donor organizations in this process? ...

Say what you mean and mean what you say: Socially Responsible Investment in Europe
September, 29 2006
San Francisco, USA - As Europeans headed for their long-awaited summer holidays, bankers had good reason to celebrate. The annual return across the board has been exceptionally favorable. For green and ethical fund managers it has been a bumper year. As of June 2005, there were 375 “socially responsible” funds available to investors in Europe, 6 % more than the year before, and this year promises similar growth in funds using ethical, social and environmental criterion for portfolio development. From the second quarter of 2004 to the same period in 2005, managed “ethical” assets grew 27%, from 19 billion to 24 billion mid term 2005. The U.K. leads the ethical banking community in Europe. 33.2% of the SRI funds offered to the public are registered there. France is considered the strongest growth market based upon the value of assets under management and a 20% growth rate in the number of funds offered for the second consecutive year. Sweden and Italy make up another 10% of the market for SRI products. ...

World Bank launch micro-finance programme
September, 28 2006
Sudan - The Central Bank of Sudan on Tuesday launched a 50 million US dollar micro-finance programme to improve the living standard of the poor but productive population segments living in the periphery of the economy ...

The Microfinance Assessment Tool 1.0 (MAT 1.0)
September, 27 2006
United States of America - The Microfinance Assessment Tool 1.0 (MAT 1.0) is an interactive decision-making model for investment in microfinance. Please take a few minutes, read all the questions carefully, and provide the best answers based on your knowledge of a potential or hypothetical investment area. ...

Grameen-Jameel Initiative Engineers $2.5 Million Investment in DBACD
September, 27 2006
Egypt - The Grameen-Jameel Initiative, an innovative collaboration between Grameen Foundation and the Abdul Latif Jameel Group to fight poverty in the Arab World through microfinance, today announced it has brokered the first investment by the country office of international commercial bank in Egypt's microfinance industry. The $2 million guarantee to Dakahlya Businessmen Association for Community Development (DBACD), a leading microfinance institution (MFI), secures a local currency loan of $2.5 million from BNP Paribas, one of the largest international banking networks. With this new funding, DBACD can provide much-needed loans to 16,000 poor Egyptians just in time for the start of Ramadan ...

CBN licenses 9 community banks as finance institution
September, 26 2006
Gbola Subair, Abuja - Nine community banks have been given the nod by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate as microfinance institutions ...

Government to tap more ODA to bridge budget gap, increase spending
September, 26 2006
Philippines - The Philippines plans to double its borrowings from foreign providers of official development assistance (ODA) to bridge its programmed budget gap and fund social service expenditures and policy reforms next year, finance department sources said ...

India's BIG microfinance revolution
September, 25 2006
India - ICICI Bank is a big money-center lender that deals with sizable companies in Bombay, Bangalore, and New Delhi. It is also one of India's biggest consumer lenders. So why does Nachiket Mor spend a lot of time in India's economically depressed rural hinterland looking for prospective borrowers ...

Women's World Banking Appoints New CEO
September, 25 2006
New York - Women's World Banking (WWB), one of the leading microfinance networks worldwide, has named Mary Ellen Iskenderian as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Iskenderian succeeds Nancy Barry, who led the organization for the past sixteen years -- a period during which the organization experienced tremendous growth. Ms. Iskenderian officially assumed the post on September 12, 2006 ...

Philippines Borrows $80 Million From Asian Development Bank to Benefit Microfinance Development Program
September, 25 2006
Philiippines - In a recent budget update, the Philippines’ Department of Finance said it would borrow $80 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The funds will benefit the country’s Microfinance Development Program, which received a $150 million ADB loan in 2005. The Program mandate is to grow the Philippines' microfinance industry and to strengthen the regulatory institutions around it. ...

BPC Bank Negotiates Increase of Micro-Credit Financing
September, 22 2006
Luanda - Banco de Poupança e Crédito (BPC) public bank is negotiating with the government to increase financing for micro-credits and other credits, aimed at reaching a total of USD 20 million, informed Friday, the institution's Administration Council chairman, Paixão Júnior ...

AIG and Accion launch global microfinance program
September, 22 2006
United States - American International Group has announced a $5.25 million, three-year partnership with Accion International to improve access to financial services for those facing poverty in emerging markets ...

Citigroup in microfinance programme
September, 22 2006
United States - Citigroup, the US bank, will on Friday announce plans to lend an initial $100m to microfinance institutions in the developing world, underlining the increasing interest in microfinance by mainstream business ...

$50M Microfinance Pledge Is Largest Ever
September, 20 2006
- Former entrepreneurs' $50 million gift draws more attention to the practice of granting small loans to help the poor run their own businesse ...

Citigroup Awards: Nilufar’s cricket bat gets her best innovative prize
September, 20 2006
Dhaka, Bangladesh - Citigroup Microentrepreneurship Awards, a global effort of the Citigroup Foundation, were formally announced in Dhaka yesterday, recognising those who had set outstanding examples for others in micro credit activities in Bangladesh. Jahida Begum won the Best Woman Microentrepreneur of the Year award 2006 while Zakir Hossain received the Best Microentrepreneur of the Year prize ...

DWM Advises on Largest Microfinance Private Placement
September, 19 2006
Darien, Connecticut - Developing World Markets today announced the closing of the largest private placement ever made by a single investor in the microfinance industry. In the transaction, TIAA-CREF, one of the largest pension funds in the US, invested approximately $43 million in the equity of ProCredit Holding, a privately held German group which is the world’s largest integrated microfinance network. Developing World Markets (DWM) advised ProCredit on the transaction ...

BPC Micro-Credit Benefits Over 950 People
September, 18 2006
Luanda, Angola - A total of 963 people from five provinces of the country benefited, during the first semester of this year, from the project of the Angolan Government of micro-credit and credit to the consumption, for professionals of the Health, Education and Rural area ...

Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY): Providing Social Support, Savings, and Microcredit Opportunities for Young Women in Areas with High HIV Prevalence
September, 18 2006
Kenya - The document reports on the Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) project in Nairobi, Kenya. The project aimed to reduce the vulnerability of out of school adolescent girls and young women, aged 16-22, to HIV infection and other illnesses by improving their livelihood options through microfinance interventions. The document includes a description of the project, an overview of microfinance in Africa, a discussion of the limits of the project's initial microcredit model, an analysis of the project's impact, and recommendations for the way forward ...

Fridays Academy: Microfinance and the poor
September, 15 2006
- Like every Friday, from Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's teaching notes ...

New microfinance institution provides credit to small Iraqi businesses
September, 11 2006
Iraq - A few months ago, a terrorist incident in Kirkuk destroyed most of the stock of a local pharmacy, leaving a family-owned business in tatters. The pharmacy will soon be fully restored: in mid-July the family took out a loan – $3,000 in Iraqi dinars – to replenish the stock and rebuild the business. The loan was the first made by Al-Aman, a new, indigenous microfinance organization established through a successful partnership between the USAID-funded Izdihar project, the U.S. military (MNC-I C9) and the Provisional Reconstruction Team (PRT) of Kirkuk ...

ACCION International and Citigroup Foundation Launch 2006 Microentrepreneurship Awards
September, 11 2006
Boston, Massachusetts - For the fifth consecutive year, global microfinance pioneer ACCION International has joined Citigroup Foundation to honor hundreds of microentrepreneurs in 23 developing countries -- those individuals who demonstrate sustainability, responsibility and creativity in their businesses. The program has been designed to highlight the critical role that microfinance can play in alleviating global poverty and strengthening impoverished communities worldwide ...

Village Phones cross 250,000 subscriber mark
September, 09 2006
Bangladesh - The internationally acclaimed Village Phone Programme, a joint initiative of GrameenPhone Ltd and Grameen Telecom to provide universal access to mobile phone services in rural areas, has recently crossed the 250,000 subscriber mark ...

Not another Micro Credit politics
September, 09 2006
Ghana - The launching of a $50 million micro credit scheme on Wednesday to provide capital to small and medium scale enterprises could not have come at the right time. During the launching, President Kufuor was candid enough to say that the scheme is not the first to be launched in the country. Indeed right from the PNDC days through the NDC and the current regime, Ghanaians have witnessed the politics of poverty alleviation, which have left more questions unanswered ...

UNDP Disburses Micro-Credit Loans To Rural Women
September, 07 2006
Liberia - Following a two-month training course in micro credit scheme, about 60 women in Saclepea Mah District, in Nimba County, have qualified to benefit from the first disbursement of a total of US$4,800.00 ...

Microinsurance Conference 2006
September, 06 2006
Cape Town, South Africa - From 21 to 23 November 2006, the Microinsurance Conference 2006 will take place in Cape Town, South Africa. The Conference is jointly hosted by CGAP [Consultative Group to Assist the Poor] Working Group on Microinsurance and the Munich Re Foundation with the support of Finmark Trust. This event is a follow-up to the Microinsurance Conference 2005 that took place in Germany in October 2005 ...

Unitus Equity Fund L.P. Invests $1,000,000 in Credex
September, 06 2006
Redmon, USA - The Unitus Equity Fund L.P., a private equity fund which invests in emerging microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Asia and Latin America, today announced an investment in Credex (Grupo Crediexpress S.A. de C.V.), an MFI in Mexico. The Fund's investment of $1,000,000, its first investment in Mexico, will support Credex's work to bring financial services to more of Mexico's poor. The Unitus Equity Fund is affiliated with Unitus, Inc., a leading microfinance organization based in Redmond, Washington. Co-investing with the Unitus Equity Fund in Credex are Controladora Project S.A. de C.V., a Mexican investment fund, and several individual Mexican investors ...

Sol Bank Grants Credits Above Two Million Dollars
September, 04 2006
Angola - Banco Sol (bank) granted during the first half of the current year, USD 2.854,621 for consumption credits and micro-credits for health and education professionals, reads a document of the Government ...