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Balancing Social and Financial Goals through a Staff Incentive Scheme
February, 29 2012
Washington DC, USA - Loan officers have a tremendous effect on the productivity and income of the MFIs that employ them, and their compensation often comprises over half of the MFI’s costs. Most MFIs are double-bottom-line organizations dedicated to the social mission for which they were founded as well as to achieving financial health.
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Kenya: Reaching the Poor, Mobile Banking and Financial Inclusion
February, 27 2012
Washington DC, USA - In a recent Slate article, Jamie Zimmerman and Sascha Meinrath lament the exclusion of the poor from Kenya’s much-touted expansion of mobile money, exemplified by the growth of M-PESA. Our contention is not that M-Pesa or mobile money tools in general are hurting the poor; but that maximizing the potential positive impacts that are so frequently touted requires a harder look at the systems that create and control access to these tools.
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‘Yunus Was Right,’ SKS Microfinance Founder Says
February, 27 2012
New York, USA - “Professor Yunus was right,” Mr. Akula said, referring to Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen Bank founder, economist and a frequent critic of Mr. Akula and others who tried to turn microfinance into a for-profit industry. “Bringing private capital into social enterprise was much harder than I anticipated,” he said
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The State and Future of Impact Investing
February, 23 2012
New York, USA - In a recent interview with Antony Bugg-Levine, CEO of Nonprofit Finance Fund, we discussed his new book about the impact investing sector, emerging trends and ideas in this space, challenges and opportunities moving forward, what the world would look like if the potential of impact investing were to be realized, and advice to traditional investors interested in becoming an impact investor
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Fiji: State's Role in Developing a Financial Inclusive Eco-System
February, 22 2012
Fiji, Suva - The Government of Fiji has taken an active role in developing a financially inclusive ecosystem and a key component has been the implementation of the first electronic government-to-person (G2P) payment program through the Department of Social Welfare (DSW).
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Abraj Buys Aureos Capital
February, 20 2012
Global - Aureos Capital has become the latest private equity investor to come under the hammer as it is sold to Middle-East giant Abraaj Capital. The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed
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China: Number of China's Micro-Lenders Rise 64 Percent
February, 20 2012
Washington, US - China's micro-credit sector witnessed explosive growth last year as the government encouraged lenders to provide more loans to small and micro-sized enterprises. The number of micro-credit companies rose 63.81 percent year-on-year to reach 4,282 by the end of December, the People's Bank of China, or the central bank, said in a statement on its website.
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Client Protection in Microfinance: The Smart Campaign Enlists Donors and Investors
February, 16 2012
New York, US - In the last year, at least ten major microfinance investment funds managing more than $2 billion have integrated client protection assessment into their due diligence and reporting. Social investors are playing an important role here, as they seek to hold their investee MFIs accountable for good practices
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Mexico’s National Council for Financial Inclusion
February, 16 2012
Washington DC - Over the last few years, the Mexican financial system has been moving toward a more inclusive financial system by expanding access to and usage of financial services. Mexico will continue working at the international level to promote financial inclusion.
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India: Commercial MFIs Can Make Markets Work for the Poor
February, 16 2012
Mumbai, India - Commercial microfinance institutions (MFIs) are an exemplification of making markets work for the poor. Are they indeed? A recent piece of research, comparing the lending performance of for-profit MFIs with not-for-profit MFIs, shows that though for-profit MFIs serve close to three-quarters of the market, the evidence does not seem to indicate that these MFIs lend indiscriminately when compared to their peers
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The Lessons of Microfinance History
February, 15 2012
Washington, US - The new microfinance practitioners may have largely forgotten the history, but they have taken inspiration from the past more than they realize….And they have repeated the successes at least as much as any failures.
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What Ails Microfinance?
February, 14 2012
Maharashtra, India - In the post-implosion analysis of the microfinance sector in Andhra Pradesh, one entity came out virtually unscathed—the idea that microfinance is basically a force for good. The argument was that microfinance has the potential to alleviate poverty and empower people, and the real problem is with a few unscrupulous or greedy microfinance organisations. The solution therefore was better regulations—such as capping the interest rates and increasing transparency
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China: Shanghai Has Big Plans for Smaller Lenders
February, 14 2012
Shanghai, China - Shanghai is encouraging more foreign companies to set up microfinancing operations, the city's financial authority said on Monday, ahead of the opening of the first such organization in the municipality.
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India: MFIs Not a Way of Making Money Out of Poor: Yunus
February, 13 2012
Dehli, India - Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel peace prize winner of 2006 and founder of Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, a global model for micro-lending to the poor, on Monday came down heavily on micro-finance companies going public through share issues. He said stock markets or public floats had no place for micro-finance companies, as it destroyed the very essence of micro-credit.
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India: Banks Raise Loan Costs for MFIs
February, 10 2012
Mumbai, India - Public sector banks have raised the effective interest rate at which they lend money to microfinance institutions (MFIs) to between 15% and 18%, citing higher risks in the sector
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Microfinance in Bangladesh: It's Not What You Thought
February, 10 2012
Washington DC - The model of microfinance in Bangladesh, as it originated at Grameen Bank, involved tiny loans to women with fixed terms and amounts, group liability, weekly meetings, forced payments into a group savings account, and a set of 16 social pledges chanted each week while standing at attention. The Grameen model spawned imitators around the world, involving a large share of microfinance clients in India, the Philippines and East Africa, among other places
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Accessing the Future: Beyond the Traditional Microfinance Space
February, 07 2012
Washington, DC - In five years, how will the poor be accessing financial services? If we could step back in time to 2006 with the microfinance sector scaling rapidly across the globe, it would have been hard to imagine that today mobile money users would outstrip all banked individuals in some countries, or that in other countries commercial banks would have overtaken microfinance institution (MFI) outreach to the poor in just a few years
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Financially Inclusive Ecosystems: The Roles of Government Today
February, 06 2012
Washington, US - Financial inclusion today is about financial markets that serve more people with more products at lower cost. A concerted effort by all stakeholders capitalizing on an unprecedented level of government interest and market innovation may make full financial inclusion a reality.
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India: SKS Microfinance Securitizes More Loans
February, 06 2012
Mumbai, India - SKS Microfinance Ltd. Monday said it has securitized one of its loan portfolios for 2.43 billion rupees ($50 million) via a rated pool assignment transaction, a move which could possibly help the struggling microlender restore investor confidence about loan quality.
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Unitus Seed Fund Launches with Three Social Enterprise Investments
February, 06 2012
Bangalore, India - Unitus Labs, an international non-profit focused on reducing global poverty through economic self-empowerment, is launching today the Unitus Seed Fund, a new seed stage venture fund that invests in Indian startup businesses with potential for large-scale poverty impact.
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Cambodia: MFIs Still Seeing Significant Growth
February, 02 2012
Phnom Phen, Cambodia - Outstanding loans and deposits in 28 of Cambodia’s microfinance institutions rose between 30 and 40 per cent year-on-year in 2011, official data from the Cambodian Microfinance Association indicated
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Think Again: Microfinance
February, 01 2012
Washington DC - Small loans probably won't lift people out of poverty or empower women. But that doesn't mean they're useless.
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