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Zimbabwe: EcoCash Launches MasterCard Debit Card
July, 31 2014
Zimbabwe - Econet’s Mobile Money service, EcoCash, has announced a landmark agreement with MasterCard that will significantly assist in reducing cash dependence and increase financial inclusion through the provision of electronic payments in Zimbabwe
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Sub-Saharan MFIs and the Region’s Booming Economy
July, 31 2014
Africa - Microfinance’s position as a cornerstone of capital flows to excluded market sectors is currently not under threat. The brisk pace of financial growth in SSA could rapidly change that. This is reinforced by the TNDA results, which highlight that MFIs have not been adept at adaptation and evolution, making them susceptible to market disruption.
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In Mexico, Naïve Consumers Get Bad Loan Information
July, 30 2014
Mexico - Financial products can vary widely in cost while providing more or less the same services. The dispersion in prices for products that offer essentially the same benefits – checking accounts, savings accounts, loans, and index funds – is thought to at least partly reflect a lack of information on the part of consumers
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Impact Investing’s Image Problem
July, 30 2014
Global - The notion of making as much money as you can and then turning around and trying to be a saint by giving it away is partly a byproduct of investor doubt that impact investing can provide both competitive performance and have a positive impact, Schueth said.
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ILO, World Bank Set to Increase Access to Insurance In Africa, Asia
July, 29 2014
Global - The International Labour Office (ILO) and the World Bank Group (WBG) have entered into a partnership, with the aim of providing access to improved insurance products to hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers, small businesses and individuals in Asia and Africa.
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China: Microcredits Boost Rural Financing
July, 29 2014
China - Currently, some rural commercial banks, rural co-operative banks, rural banks, and urban commercial banks in China are offering microcredit products. Compared to the traditional credit products, microcredits target small businesses, self-employed entrepreneurs, and farmers who are at the lower end of the industrial chain and lack collateral and guarantor
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Micro-Insurers Target India’s Poor
July, 27 2014
India - High quality global journalism requires investment. Losing a breadwinner on India’s notoriously dangerous roads is a real risk. So Indian truck drivers that own their own vehicles are being offered low-cost life assurance to protect their working class families in the event of a tragedy
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Is Mobile Wallet A Distant Dream In India?
July, 27 2014
India - Despite a huge unbanked population and 700 million cell phone connections, the concept of mobile wallet will take some time to become popular in India as people are still unaware of its larger benefits like financial inclusion, even as the standards to make it functional are yet to be in place, experts maintain
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Social Business Shows Way of Development in Myanmar
July, 24 2014
Myanmar - Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus discussed the role of social business in the development of Myanmar with the country's ministers, senior government officials and members of parliament on the final day of his three-day visit there
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Bringing Financial Services to Illiterate Populations
July, 24 2014
Global - To be successful, new digital products must adapt to the circumstances and capabilities of their target consumers. This means putting illiterate individuals at the center of the design process so that the products will work for them
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Bangladesh: 50 Micro-Lenders Lose Licenses
July, 23 2014
Bangladesh - The licenses of nearly 50 microfinance institutions (MFIs) have been cancelled by the regulator for breach of the set rules and regulations guiding micro-credit operations, officials said
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Rural Banks to Serve More Filipinos with Increased Microinsurance Benefits
July, 23 2014
Philippines - Under the new Insurance Code, benefits that may be derived from a microinsurance policy have been raised to up to 1,000 times the minimum daily wage of non-agricultural workers in Metro Manila or up to P466,000. Premium, meanwhile, is now computed at 7.5 percent of the same daily wage
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Kenya: Capital Demand Delays Upgrade of Micro-Lenders
July, 23 2014
Kenya - Microfinance firms have kept away from converting into deposit-taking institutions in the past four years citing huge capital requirements. The Association of Microfinance Institutions (AMFI) attributed the reluctance to inability to get new cash-rich investors able to dilute current owners down to the required level of 25 per cent
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Myanmar: Bringing Banks to the Poor
July, 21 2014
Myanmar - Some 15 percent of adults are currently borrowing an estimated US$3.9 billion from unregulated money lenders in Myanmar while less than 5pc of the population have formal bank accounts. Yet promoting financial inclusion will be no easy task
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Africa: How to Inspire a Generation of Farming Entrepreneurs
July, 18 2014
Africa - Young people still view agriculture as a dead-end career that entails life-long labour on a farm. However, it does not have to be this way. With the right investments to support entrepreneurs in agriculture, profitable careers could await Africa's young population
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India: Small Banks Will Provide Big Push to Financial Inclusion
July, 18 2014
India - Consultancy firm Deloitte today said RBI's move to allow specialised banking entities such as payment banks will go a long way in furthering the cause of financial inclusion, and prospective players, who leverage technology would get a head start
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Malaysia: Redefining SMEs
July, 14 2014
Malaysia - The SME sector currently contributes about 33.1% of the national economy, but the Government aims to raise the contribution of SMEs to 41% by 2020
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Lenders Seek Myanmar Banking Entrée
July, 13 2014
Myanmar - Dozens of foreign banks are pushing to launch licensed operations in Myanmar, in a bid round closing on Monday that reveals both pros and cons of entering the fast-opening southeast Asian country.
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Indonesia: OJK, Ministries Team Up to Handle Microfinance Institutions
July, 12 2014
Indonesia - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Home Ministry and the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry to better handle microfinance institutions, which have high potential but remain untapped.
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Microinsurance Needs a Push to Reach Potential in Thailand
July, 11 2014
Thailand - In order to expand the availability of life and non-life insurance policies to those who are unable to afford standard premiums, the Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) has been promoting microinsurance in Thailand
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Developing World Blazes Trail for 2.5bn with No Banking Access
July, 09 2014
Global - Developing countries such as Kenya and Brazil have blazed trails: some three-quarters of adult Kenyans are now connected to bank services via their mobile phones, for example, and Brazil opened the door to offering simple banking transactions at local shops
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India: Banks Start Offering Loans to Bandhan Financial
July, 09 2014
India - Banks are queuing up to lend money to Kolkata-based microfinance institution Bandhan Financial Services, which was among the lucky two to secure a banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April this year.
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Inaccessible Credit Driving Kenyans to Seek Expensive Loans
July, 09 2014
Kenya - Majority of Kenyans, mostly in the rural areas, do not have access to affordable credit. This is despite the banking industry, a leader in the credit industry recording huge profits, in addition to unveiling various innovative financial products targeted at middle to upper income urban consumers
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Smallholders Face Financial Worries and Fragile Food Production System
July, 08 2014
Global - With a lack of human capital and limited access to infrastructure, markets, and technologies, most smallholder farmers can barely subsist. Access to financing, markets for their products, information about pricing and weather patterns is hard to come by, and national policies rarely support smallholders' interests
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South Africa’s Cashless Future Relies on Localisation, Not Innovation
July, 07 2014
South Africa - South Africa may not be at the head of the global mobile payments race but there is a swathe of hugely exciting mobile transacting applications and services being launched right now. The success of these applications will rely largely on the service providers’ ability to localise each service to suit the specific needs of the South African populatio
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Namibia: SME Bank Readies for N$630 Million Expansion
July, 07 2014
Namibia - Namibia's youngest banking institution, the SME Bank is readying itself for the N$630 million windfall from Treasury which is set to enable a new growth for small, medium, micro, and informal enterprises in the country
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Zimbabwe: Microfinanciers Shun Small Entreprises
July, 03 2014
Zimbabwe - Lending by microfinance institutions (MFIs) has remained skewed towards consumptive lending at the expense of supporting small and medium enterprises that are critical to economic development, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has said
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EBRD Launches New Information Campaign in Kyrgyzstan
July, 01 2014
Kyrgyzstan - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has launched a new information campaign in Kyrgyzstan about the value of external advice for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
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