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Steady Returns With Social Impact
September, 29 2009
New York, United States - While the rest of the market has seen losses, impact investing has outperformed.In today's volatile markets, investors are looking for new ways to capture returns while managing risk. The little secret of this past year's capital crisis is that while many mainstream investments incurred significant losses in value, one category remained steady--with some investors significantly outperforming the mainstream market. It's called impact investing
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G20 Final Communique: Fighting Poverty
September, 29 2009
Washington, United States - The Group of 20 released a final statement at the conclusion of the two-day meeting. In it, the G20 pledged to keep emergency economic supports in place until sustainable recovery is assured, launch a framework for acting together to re-balance economic growth, and establish tougher rules governing banks by 2012
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Industry Leaders Create Microfinance Investing Standards
September, 25 2009
New York, United States - As the microfinance industry becomes more sophisticated and thus more complex, the need for metrics, transparency and regulation are becoming clearer to industry leaders in order to scale and continue the programs
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A Place in Society
September, 25 2009
New York, United States - The idea that devices such as collateralised debt obligations and credit-default swaps have been a blessing, not least by allowing the less well-off to buy houses, is in tatters: lots of those new homeowners have lost their houses as well as their jobs. It is remarkable, then, that the crisis should have given fresh impetus to “social finance”, a movement based on the belief that financial innovation can be used directly to help society’s neediest people.
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Nicaragua: Microfinance Sector Facing Increasing Challenges
September, 24 2009
San Salvador, El Salvador/San José, Costa Rica - The risks faced by microfinance institutions worldwide have aggravated over the past year. The lesser favorable economic conditions have deeply impacted the populational sectors in developing countries that have managed to overcome poverty and compose an important segment of microfinance institutions. This has then resulted in a significant increase of non-performing loans and a noticeable deterioration of profitability indicators
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Grameen Trust and Fundacion Carlos Slim Launch the $45 Million Grameen Carso Microfinance Program
September, 24 2009
New-York, United States - Grameen Trust and Fundacion Carlos Slim A.C., the family charitable foundation of Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helu, have officially launched the Grameen Carso. The mission of Grameen Carso is to significantly increase access to affordable micro-credit in Mexico for poverty alleviation through the Grameen Bank microcredit model and the support of Foundation Carlos Slim. Grameen Carso plans to serve more than 100,000 borrowers in the first five years
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Jamii Bora and GreenMicrofinance Announce New Partnership
September, 23 2009
Nairobi, Kenya - GreenMicrofinance has unveiled an exciting commercial microfinance venture focusing on an environmental investment project that could become a model for the entire developing world. This announcement was made at recent event at Morgan Stanley
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What's Next for Microfinance? More than Money
September, 23 2009
Seattle, United States - Pro Mujer, an organization that funds microcredit cooperatives in Latin America, also provides women's health screenings, using a special van retrofitted with medical consultation rooms and staffed by a nurse and doctor
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Grameen Trust and Alibaba Group (HKG:1688) To Create Grameen China Initiative
September, 23 2009
New York, United States - Grameen Trust of Bangladesh and Alibaba Group (HKG:1688)(PINK:ALBCF) have joined hands to create the Grameen China initiative, an effort to provide micro-credit financial services to China's poorest residents to create income generating opportunities and help lift them to a higher standard of living
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Nigeria: Microfinance Banks and Loan Default
September, 23 2009
Lagos, Nigeria - There is increasing fear that the high default rate among fund borrowers from the microfinance banks may soon ruin the nascent banking institutions, The Guardian investigation has revealed
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Small Change
September, 20 2009
Boston, United States - Billions of dollars and a Nobel Prize later, it looks like ‘microlending’ doesn’t actually do much to fight povert
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Experts Disagree on EU Microfinance Fund
September, 18 2009
London, United Kingdom - A proposed EU microfinance fund, set up earlier this year to stimulate job creation in recession-ridden Europe, has provoked sharp disagreements. Two experts, one from a social NGO and one from a European chamber of commerce, spoke to EurActiv about the scheme's chances
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Korea: Microcredit Push to Help Poor with their Businesses
September, 18 2009
Seoul, Korea - The Korean government said yesterday it would form a 300 billion won ($248.7 million) microcredit lending program this year for low-income individuals searching for cash to start up or maintain their businesses and would expand the program by up to 2 trillion won over the next decade.
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European Pension Funds Set to Increase Investment in Microfinance
September, 17 2009
Geneva, Switzerland - Pension funds that have already invested or are about to invest in microfinance expect to maintain or increase current investment levels over the next three years according to the findings of a survey commissioned and published by the World Microfinance Forum Geneva (WMFG). Those that plan to increase typically foresee doubling their involvement
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The Pain of Failure: Liquidation Lessons in Microfinance
September, 16 2009
Brussels, Belgium - In the microfinance world, recoveries by creditors following an MFI’s collapse are rare. When MFIs fail, pursuing liquidations, even in the presence of relatively strong portfolios, is often deemed too costly and too difficult. Though MFI failures are relatively infrequent, liquidations need to be examined by the microfinance community.
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AML/CFT: Promoting Financial Integrity—and Inclusion
September, 14 2009
Washington D.C., United States - Fighting money laundering and the financing of terrorism (ML/FT) doesn’t have to mean excluding poor people from the formal financial sector. In fact, banishing the unserved majority to the informal world of cash misses the point—and a critical opportunity for regulators and law enforcement to trace the movement of money. A new CGAP Focus Note, “AML/CFT: Strengthening Financial Inclusion and Integrity,” argues that financial inclusion and an effective financial integrity regime can—and should—be complementary national policy objectives
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World Bank: Vast potential in Emerging Markets for Financial Services
September, 14 2009
Bangalore, India - A new report from IFC and the World Bank shows by focusing on building and reforming credit reporting, collateral registries, and payment and securities systems, more than half the population in emerging markets could have access to financial services within 10 years and enjoy financial transaction cost reductions of nearly 80 per cent, said an IFC statement
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Gates Foundation Funds Global Network to Increase Savings
September, 14 2009
Bangkok, Thailand - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is making its largest grant to date in the financial services space -- $35 million to help set up a global network to help the poor gain access to savings accounts and other financial tools
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Nigeria: Crackdown on Erring Microfinance Banks Begins
September, 12 2009
Abuja, Nigeria - There were indications at the weekend that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may have kicked off the review of operations of the 776 licensed microfinance banks in what economy watchers described as the second phase of banking sector reforms
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Uganda: Police Close Three Microfinance Firms
September, 11 2009
Fort Portal Town, Uganda - The Police have closed three suspected fake microfinance institutions in Fort Portal Town, Kaborole District and arrested several officials running them
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Microfinance: Bringing Financial Services to Continent Poor (Executive Summary)
September, 10 2009
Atlanta, United States - Beginning in the 1970s, a microfinance revolution swept through Asia and Latin America, helping countless millions of poor people get the economic boost they needed to start small businesses and work their way out of poverty. Somehow, the revolution bypassed Africa: While there are more than 300 million economically active individuals in sub-Saharan Africa, only about 20 million of them – less than 10 percent – have access to any kind of formal financial services
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Cambodia: Microfinanciers Slash Rates
September, 07 2009
Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Micro-lending institutions have been forced to cut their rates to attract customers amid tight competition across the sector
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Investor Perspective: Sustainable Microfinance
September, 07 2009
Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands - Manuel Adamini and Marieke de Leede of SNS Asset Management offer some thoughts on how the impact of microfinance initiatives can be better measured
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Peru Banco de Credito Buys 77.1% of Financiera Edyficar
September, 07 2009
Lima, Peru - Banco de Credito (CRE.LM), Peru's largest bank, said on Monday it has reached a deal to acquire a 77.1 percent stake in the country's second-largest microfinance group, Financiera Edyficar, for nearly $80 million
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US Congress Panel Visits Microfinance Bank in Rwanda
September, 06 2009
Kigali, Rwanda - A US Congressional delegation has visited Rwanda to study the microfinance human-capacity building opportunities there. According to a 2007 study by the World Bank, more than 80% of the population in most of sub-Saharan Africa is shut out of the banking sector because they cannot afford the fees, they lack required documentation or they live too far from the nearest bank
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Debunking Myths about the Poor and Financial Services
September, 04 2009
Chennai, India - The power of finance to transform the lives of the poor is not well understood. Despite recent articles that raise concerns about microfinance, the evidence at large shows that successful microfinance institutions (and their list is growing) have managed to implement service delivery mechanisms that meet the needs of the poor, at a lower cost than most accessible alternatives
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Lagos State Microfinance Association Sets up Intervention Fund
September, 03 2009
Lagos, Nigeria - The Lagos State Chapter of thethe National Association of Microfinance Banks of Nigeria has set up an Intervention Fund to be used in addressing the problems of short term liquidity that is becoming a common feature in the microfinance sub-sector
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Ghana to Host Conference on Consumer Protection in Africa
September, 03 2009
Accra, Ghana - More than 250 policy makers, regulators, journalists and representatives from financial institutions and their apex organizations, the education sector, consumer protection agencies, and development partners from over 30 countries will participate in an international conference scheduled for 8 to 9 September 2009 in Accra
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Microfinance Funds: Still growing – with Increased Focus on Social Transparency
September, 01 2009
Paris, France - So far, microfinance funds – or investment vehicles (MIVs) – have been relatively unscathed by the financial crisis that has wreaked havoc on the world’s financial systems. While emerging market funds have experienced a 20 percent sell-off, the top 10 microfinance investment funds grew by 32 percent in 2008.
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Trickle-Down Effect
September, 01 2009
New York, United States - The $32-billion microfinance sector has been pounded by the worst economic slowdown since the Great Depression. Default rates at MFIs are rising, with many borrowers facing a harsh deterioration in economic health because of weak conditions in the developed countries. And growth has pulled back significantly, with MFIs hampered by the capital constraints endemic to the financial market meltdown
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