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Oct 2007
Banco Compartamos' Ratings Upgraded by S&P to "mxAA-" with a Stable Outlook
October, 31 2007
Mexico City - Banco Compartamos, S.A. ("Compartamos" or "the Bank") (BMV:COMPART), the leading Mexican microfinance bank, today announced that Standard and Poor's raised the Company's long-term national scale rating from "mxA+" to "mxAA-" and confirmed the Company's short-term rating at "mxA-1" with a "Stable Outlook" ...
Unitus Convenes Microfinance, Business and Philanthropic Leaders to Scale the Effort to Reduce Global Poverty
October, 31 2007
Cebu, Philippines and Redmond, United States - Global leaders in microfinance, business and philanthropy concluded a three-day Summit focused on charting the next chapter of poverty alleviation through social entrepreneurship. Unitus, Inc., a worldwide leader in scaling innovative solutions to global poverty, invited Pierre Omidyar, eBay founder and co-founder and founding partner of Omidyar Network, and Matt Bannick, managing partner of Omidyar Network and former president of eBay International, to provide their insights, leadership and vision to the Summit. ...
Building an Industry from Scratch: Donor cooperation in Afghanistan
October, 31 2007
Washington, United States - When the Taliban regime in Afghanistan lost power in 2002, it left a devastated country behind. With no functioning banking system, 90 percent of Afghanistan's economy was financed by informal moneylenders. In terms of microfinance, Afghanistan was a blank slate. The tragedy of war had left a unique opportunity in its wake. ...
Ghana: Rating service for small financial institutions
October, 30 2007
Accra, Ghana - Support Programme for Enterprise Employment and Development (SPEED) an NGO, has introduced a multi-donor rating service for smaller financial institutions in Ghana. The rating service is expected to enhance performance and transparency of the micro finance sector ...
Africap Raises Capital to $50 million (Sh3.25 million).
October, 27 2007
Nairobi, Kenya - AfriCap Microfinance Fund, Africa's first microfinance private equity fund, on Friday announced the closing of second round of investments raising its capital from $14 million (Sh910 million) to $50 million (Sh3.25 million) ...
India: NGOs Use Microfinance to Channel Water to Urban Poor
October, 26 2007
India - A woman from a slum in Tiruchirpalli City, Tamil Nadu, who identifies herself simply as “Mrs. Manonmani,” could only go to a nearby public water standpost once every four days to collect water for her family. The family of four would use up its ration of water well before the next scheduled pick-up, and Manonmani would often have to ask her neighbors for their excess water — when they had any ...
eBay site lets people finance the world's poor
October, 24 2007
New York, United States - EBay Inc the world's largest online auctioneer and payments company, launched on Wednesday a Web site allowing ordinary investors to buy securities aimed at improving conditions in the world's poorest countries ...
IHG Creates Unique Partnership to Alleviate Poverty and Protect the Environment
October, 22 2007
Dallas, United States - IHG's (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON: IHG; NYSE: IHG (ADRs)] Americas region is partnering with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) by making micro-enterprise loans available to small farmers in rural Costa Rica ...
IFC’s Growth Strategy: Promoting the Private Sector
October, 21 2007
Washington D.C., United States - IFC Executive Vice President and CEO, Lars Thunell, today affirmed that the Corporation's growth strategy is central to the World Bank Group's efforts to fight poverty. ...
India: IFMR Trust to float two funds to support start-ups and MFIs
October, 18 2007
Chennai, India - The IFMR (Institute for Financial Management and Research) Trust, supported by a group of investors, including ICICI Bank, will be floating two funds- the Network Enterprise Fund, a $100 million fund that will support start-ups in a few priority sectors and the Microfinance Classic Fund, a $40 million fund which will fund start-ups in the microfinance (MFIs) space. ...
Sending money home: Worldwide remittance flows to developing countries
October, 17 2007
Rome, Italy - 150 million migrants worldwide sent more than US$300 billion to thier families in developing countries during 2006 ...
Mexico Micro Finance Lender Independencia Plans IPO This Year
October, 17 2007
Mexico City, Mexico - Mexican microfinance lender Financiera Independencia SAB, in which HSBC Holdings Plc (HBC) owns a minority stake, plans to list its shares on the local stock exchange later this year ...
United Kingdom: CDC Invests $30 million in Minlam Microfinance Local Currency Fund
October, 17 2007
United Kingdom, - CDC Group (“CDC”), the UK Government-backed private equity emerging markets fund of funds investor, today announces it has committed $30 million to the Minlam Microfinance Offshore Fund (“The Minlam Fund” or “the Fund”), a commercial microfinance debt fund. ...
Kenya: Equity Bank gets a greenlight to buy Housing Finance
October, 17 2007
Kenya - Equity Bank has been given the green light to buy Housing Finance. The approval from the Treasury, Central Bank and Capital Markets Authority is a milestone that will pave the way for the transaction’s conclusion ...
IBM Partners With Grameen Foundation to Expand Its Open Source Microfinance Banking Platform
October, 15 2007
United States - IBM and Grameen Foundation today announced a collaborative project to help microfinance institutions (MFIs) better serve poor communities around the world by expanding Mifos, Grameen Foundation's ground-breaking open source microfinance software platform. The project will build additional functionality and robustness into the Mifos application and give MFIs around the world access to new, world-class software that streamlines the lending process and significantly reduces operational and technology costs. Five MFIs are currently deploying Mifos in India, Kenya, Tunisia and Honduras ...
Sweden: Kinnevik Invests $14 million in African Micro Finance Company
October, 15 2007
Stockholm, Sweden - Investment AB Kinnevik publ. ("Kinnevik") today announced that it has financed the African micro finance company Bayport with USD 14 million. The financing is provided as a blend of debt and equity ...
India: Blackstone, Carlyle eye microfinance
October, 11 2007
New Delhi, India - The private equity interest in microfinance is reaching a crescendo with heavyweights such as the Blackstone Group and the Carlyle Group willing to invest in the sector. A source close to the development has said that both these groups have shown interest in putting money into MFIs. ...
India: Government to set up two funds on microfinance
October, 10 2007
New Delhi, India - The Union Government on Tuesday announced that it would set up two funds of Rs. 500 crore each to facilitate easy availability of credit to the poor ...
Catalyst Microfinance Investors achieves second close for equity
October, 09 2007
Nijmegen, the Netherlands - Catalyst Microfinance Investors (“CMI”) today announced that it has achieved its second private closing with total initial commitments of US$ 50 million (€35 million) from leading institutional and private investors based in the United States of America and Europe. CMI is a private equity fund dedicated to investing in emerging, fast-growing microfinance institutions (“MFI’s”) throughout Asia and Africa and is planning total commitments from investors to reach between US$ 75 million (€53 million) and US$ 100 million (€71 million) before the end of the year ...
Conference: Fostering Gender Equality : Meeting the Entrepreneurship and Microfinance Challenge
October, 09 2007
Paris, France - On 13-14 December, 2007, Gender Equality in microentrepreneurship and microfinance in Europe which will be held in Madrid, in the “Círculo de Bellas Artes”. ...
India: Legatum invests $8.4-million in Intellecap
October, 08 2007
Mumbai, India - Legatum, a private firm that invests in global capital markets and in initiatives that support social development, on Monday said it has invested Rs 34 crore ($8.4-million) in Intellecap ...
Financing tool follows social networking
October, 05 2007
Chicago, Unites States - An emerging Internet-based financing tool that brings borrowers and lenders together the way eBay links buyers and sellers is gaining momentum, turning more Main Street investors into Wall Street wannabe ...
India: NXP joins A Little World for facilitating rural banking
October, 04 2007
Bangalore, India - The mobile stores the entire database of customers in the village and neighbouring areas within the phone’s memory, protected by a high security chip built into the phone ...
Microfinance India Conference to be held on Oct 9-10
October, 04 2007
New Delhi, India - The 4th annual edition microfinance India conference will be held from October 9- 10th, 2007 at New Delhi. Microfinance India has emerged as most credible platform for learning, sharing and visioning for the Indian microfinance industry. This year the conference will highlight the unique success of the Indian microfinance sector, specifically the role of the formal financial sector in providing financial services to the poor. ...
Three Andean nations lead Latin America in business climate for microfinance, according to new index
October, 03 2007
San Salvador, El Salvador - Microscope, a scorecard index prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by the IDB and CAF ...
FMBL, Pakistan Post collaborate to alleviate poverty
October, 03 2007
Islamabad, Pakistan - The First MicroFinance Bank Ltd (FMBL) and Pakistan Post have agreed to work together for alleviating poverty in the country. This unique public-private partnership between both the parties will allow rapid scaling up of quality microfinance services to the very poor populations residing in rural and urban Pakistan. ...

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