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"Beyond Charity" - Socially Responsible Investments
March, 28 2008
Zurich, Switzerland - In the current issue of Credit Suisse's "Global Investor," analysts and external experts examine how business practices are increasingly being used for social purposes.The new issue, titled "Beyond Charity," provides an overview of an innovative range of socially responsible investments that combine financial and social returns, and open new opportunities for investors. Microfinance, private-equity financing, and socially responsible funds are enabling investors to add social commitment to their investment strategies. Credit Suisse has in the past already successfully been providing products to socially responsible investors. These include the responsAbility Global Microfinance Fund and Charity Notes, which provide investors with positive returns and support charitable cause
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Further EBRD support for Bosnian micro enterprises
March, 27 2008
London, United Kingdom - The EBRD is providing a new €6 million loan to Mikrokreditna organizacija EKI, the third largest microfinance institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), to help EKI expand its lending activities and further develop the organization
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OPIC Partners with Calvert Foundation to support funding microfinance Institutions
March, 27 2008
Washington D.C., United States - The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) will provide $10 million in financing to a foundation that raises capital – potentially helping to change the way American retail investors channel support to MFIs and other social investments, OPIC President and CEO Robert Mosbacher, Jr. announced today
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Global commercial banks double loans in microfinance
March, 27 2008
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - By the end of 2007, international banks’ total amount of outstanding wholesale loans to MicroFinance Institutions (MFI’s) has more than doubled from US$ 0.5 billion in 2006 to approximately US$ 1.4 billion. Notably, there was an increase in loans to African microfinance institutions
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Conference: Mobile Monney Summit 2008
March, 27 2008
Cairo, Egypt - Mobile Money Summit 2008 is two-day conference designed for senior executives from financial services institutions, mobile network operators, development organizations, solutions vendors and regulatory and policy makers. The conference takes place May 14 – 15 in Cairo, Egypt
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Microfinance Meets Wall Street
March, 26 2008
United States - Notwithstanding the fact that most foreign microfinance funding comes from public entities and socially motivated private investors, over a hundred new debt and equity funds have been created in the past decade, and particularly in the past three years.Three examples highlight the range of capital market tools that MFIs have begun to use: 1) BRAC's securitization of retail microfinance loans; 2) Blue Orchard's securitization of wholesale loans to MFIs via a collateralized loan obligation; and 3) the IPO of Compartamos, Mexico's largest MFI.
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USAID Program in Iraq Tops $150 Million in Micro-loans
March, 25 2008
Washington D.C., United States - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced today that its private-sector development program in Iraq, known as Izdihar ("prosperity" in Arabic), has helped provide more than $150 million in micro-loans since the start of U.S. government microfinance assistance to Iraq in 2003.
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Cameroon: A Veritable Hob for Jobs
March, 24 2008
Yaoundé, Cameroon - Though Africa as a continent lags behind in microfinance development, the past years have witnessed some spotty effort to make the sector grow
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Give with the stars – but make it count
March, 22 2008
London, United Kingdom - The overwhelming growth in the popularity of philanthropy has to be a good thing, right? Not necessarily. The truth is, the popularity of philanthropy has little correlation with the effectiveness of philanthropy...Ultimately, the global philanthropic marketplace will guide individuals and their dollars to organisations and causes that yield the highest and best results for society
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Pakistan: Microfinance banks allowed to raise tier-II capital
March, 21 2008
Karachi, Pakistan - The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has allowed microfinance banks (MFBs) to raise tier-II capital in order to maintain a capital adequacy ratio of 15 percent. At the same time it has asked them to maintain a minimum paid up capital according to their area of operation at all times.
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Rwanda: MFIs May Use ATM Technology
March, 19 2008
Kigali, Rwanda - Micro finance Institutions (MFIs) in Rwanda are in discussions with the central bank and Simtel to be integrated into the electronic financial transactions
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Afghanistan favours Islamic microfinance
March, 19 2008
Afghanistan - Providing Shariah-compliant loans has made it possible for FINCA to expand in areas of Afghanistan where other MFIs have been turned away for charging interest
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African Policymakers shine the spotlight on
March, 18 2008
Yaoundé, Cameroon - Amid a frenzy of policy activity around microfinance, the Central Africa Policy Forum begins today in Yaoundé. Over the course of two and a half days, regional leaders from ten countries in Sub-Saharan Africa will discuss how policy measures can be used to improve access to financial services for low income people in the region
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FORUS Bank is the first savings license holder in 2008
March, 17 2008
Russia - On the 17th of March 2008 a conference “New opportunities for banking sphere development ” took place in FORUS Bank. It was devoted to the acquisition of savings license. Head of the Central Bank in Nizhny Novgorod Region Stanislav Spitsyn participated in the conference
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The U.S. Subprime Crisis: Five Lessons for Microfinance
March, 15 2008
Washington, United States - Less than two years ago, nagging delinquency problems started to crop up in one tiny corner of the U.S. home finance market – so-called subprime mortgages (that is, higher cost home loans to borrowers unable to qualify for traditional financing). They made the dream of first-time home ownership possible for many. Yet today, an estimated two million subprime loans appear likely to default. And the crisis has set off worldwide concerns about how the resulting credit crunch and a looming U.S. recession will affect growth in countries rich and poor
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China: More join in rural banking
March, 14 2008
China - Big banks and agricultural companies will expand their business in China's less competitive yet much-needed rural banking sector, said entrepreneurs on the sidelines of CPPCC meetings
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QUICK Centre website launching
March, 12 2008
Indonesia - The QUICK Centre is a knowledge sharing platform for microfinance practitioners in natural disaster surroundings.
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What Microloans Miss
March, 10 2008
New York, United States - What poor countries need most is not more microbusinesses. They need more small-to-medium-sized enterprises, the kind that are bigger than a fruit stand but smaller than a Fortune 1000 corporation. In high-income countries, these companies create more than sixty per cent of all jobs, but in the developing world they’re relatively rare, thanks to a lack of institutions able to provide them with the capital they need. It’s easy for really big companies in poor countries to tap the markets for funding, and now, because of microfinance, it’s possible for really small enterprises to get money, too. But the companies in between find it hard. It’s a phenomenon that has been dubbed the “missing middle.
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Bangladesh: Citi gives $65m equivalent for rural development
March, 07 2008
Dhaka, Bangladesh - Citibank N.A., Bangladesh has provided a total of US$65 million in equivalent local currency credit facility to leading Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) in Bangladesh including BRAC, BURO, Shakti Foundation for Disadvantaged Women and Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Shangha (TMSS)
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Whole Planet Foundation and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus Partner With Natural Foods Vendors
March, 06 2008
Austin, United States - Whole Planet Foundation, a Whole Foods Market nonprofit dedicated to combating poverty in developing countries through microcredit, today announced the creation of a unique coalition of natural foods companies -- Whole Planet Foundation Supplier Alliance for Microcredit. The Alliance has pledged $1.05 million over three years to help support the Foundation's microlending programs in developing world communities
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Morgan Stanley Builds Upon Leadership Role in Microfinance
March, 06 2008
New York, United States - Morgan Stanley and Women’s World Banking teamed together to host a ground-breaking conference on microfinance and the capital markets on February 20-21. Nearly 300 people attended including socially responsible investors, Morgan Stanley employees and 78 members of 45 microfinance institutions (MFI’s) to discuss how MFI’s can take advantage of the increasing presence of the capital markets in the microfinance sector.
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$100 Million for 10,000 Women
March, 05 2008
United States - Thousands of women entrepreneurs in developing countries have started their own businesses in the past few years, many with help from local microfinance banks and nonprofits that issued them small loans and financial support. The concept has taken off, but there has been one key flaw in the model: Most of the women have little, if any, formal education and lack the management skills and financial savvy to take their business to the next level. On Mar. 5, investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS) announced it would change the equation by pumping $100 million into educational projects for these women over the next five year
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Azerbaijan: MFBA completes $25 Million Bond Issue
March, 03 2008
Azerbaijan - The second closing on MFBA’s debut bond issue was completed March 3, 2008. Under the second closing additional bonds providing senior debt to Micro Finance Bank of Azerbaijan in the amount of USD 13.6 million and a term of four-and-a-half years were issued to international capital markets investors through a Luxembourg securitization vehicle
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