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Microinsurance: Disrupt, Fail, Repeat?
April, 30 2015
Global - Microinsurance, a darling of the charitable-industrial complex, has run into tough times of late. After more than ten years of high-octane activity, and despite an influx of donor dollars and the stated dedication of insurance titans to work at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP), very few initiatives have been able to achieve scale, sustainably, or impact
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India, Impact Story: Grameen Koota India
April, 29 2015
India - By using the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI), microfinance institutions (MFIs) like Grameen Koota are empowering Meher, Salimabi, and other poor women in India to become financially independent and break from poverty
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Microcredit Summit Campaign Joins World Bank's Financial Inclusion Efforts
April, 28 2015
Global - The Microcredit Summit Campaign has made a commitment to support the World Bank Group's goal to reach universal financial access by 2020 (UFA2020), joining a global coalition of partners that include multilateral agencies, banks, credit unions, card networks, microfinance institutions and telecommunications companies.
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South Africa: The Contradictions in Unsecured Lending
April, 28 2015
South Africa - Unsecured lending is a controversial topic in South Africa. It sits in a very uncomfortable place where there is clearly both demand and need for it, but at the same time it has caused some serious social problems
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Jean Case, Contributer, Forbes: A New Inning for Impact Investing
April, 27 2015
Global - For years, a nascent movement led by passionate pioneers out to change the world has been slowly but surely taking shape. Quietly, these early fearless leaders have been championing the idea that businesses can be a tool for social good, beyond the jobs that they create
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Sri Lanka: Debt for Development
April, 25 2015
Sri Lanka - In an environment where donors have enthusiastically jumped on the bandwagon and microcredit institutions have mushroomed after the 2004 tsunami and the end of the civil war in 2009, the forum provided a much needed space to discuss the effects of access to finance on development.
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The Triumphs and Tribulations of Impact Investing
April, 24 2015
England - Both the triumphs and the growing pains of "impact investing" were on display in Oxford, England last week. Impact investing goes beyond the passive tactic of limiting investments to, say, companies that are green or that don't produce guns
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'Do-good' Companies Can Do Well for Investors, Wharton Researchers Say
April, 24 2015
Global - Impact investing is a nice idea — and for many critics that’s precisely the problem.
The relatively young industry, which focuses on social or environmental returns in addition to financial ones, has until now lacked performance data. So how can you tell if investors are truly "doing well by doing good," as the saying goes
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Mobile Money Without Borders
April, 23 2015
West Africa - The GSMA recently released a case study that highlights early results from a promising new model for cross-border remittances. In this blog post, Claire Scharwatt and Chris Williamson share some insights into this new model, which they believe is transforming the remittance landscape in West Africa
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India: RBI Overhauls Priority Sector Lending Targets
April, 23 2015
India - Broadbasing the priority sector, RBI added three more categories into the fold—medium enterprises, social infrastructure and renewable energy—in addition to the existing ones, which include agriculture, micro and small enterprises, export credit, education, and certain categories of housing
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How the World Bank Should Help the Planet's Poorest: Pay Them
April, 21 2015
Global - The potential of universal financial access presents a substantial challenge to governments and donor agencies alike: Can you demonstrate that your complex subsidy schemes and your armies of consultants, procurement experts, and engineers really deliver a bigger impact than simply giving money to citizens
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IFC Provides $40 Million to Banco Internacional in Ecuador
April, 17 2015
Ecuador - IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is providing $40 million to Banco Internacional in Ecuador to expand lending to local small and medium enterprises with a portion of the financing exclusively earmarked for enterprises owned or operated by women.
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Picking Winners in the Great Remittance Disruption
April, 16 2015
Global - Remittances are big business. This year, customers will send $454 billion to developing countries through formal channels alone. Developing countries’ income from remittances is three times bigger than the global aid budget. If you exclude China, remittance flows even outweigh foreign direct investment
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Stephen Ufford, Founder and CEO of Trulioo: Why Financial Inclusion May Well Depend on Cyber ID Data
April, 16 2015
Global - Until recently, there have been few options to help provide the world’s 2.5 billion unbanked with access to basic financial services. But that has changed dramatically in recent years, with mobile phone use skyrocketing in emerging markets to the point that India will become the world’s second-largest smartphone market by 2016, surpassing the United States and exceeded only by China.
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Bamboo Finance Announces the First Close of Financial Inclusion Fund II
April, 16 2015
Global - Bamboo Finance, a private equity firm specializing in investing in business models that benefit low-income communities in growth markets, today announced the first close of $31 million in its second financial inclusion focused fund with investments from Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA-CREF) and AXA-IM.
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Poorest People Open More Bank Accounts, World Bank Study
April, 15 2015
Global - The Global Findex survey, produced by the World Bank, found that 62 percent of people worldwide now use financial institutions or mobile money services, up from 51 percent in 2011, a 700 million increase from three years ago
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The Slow Global Spread of Savings Accounts
April, 15 2015
Global - Last year, researchers travelled around the globe to talk about personal finance with a hundred and fifty thousand people, representing a range of socioeconomic classes, and living both in cities and in remote, rural parts of more than a hundred and forty countries
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Gender Gap Persists for Bank-account Holders
April, 15 2015
Global - A persistent gap between the portion of men and women who have bank accounts is confounding experts despite huge leaps in access to banking services and the financial system globally
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Insurers Must Adapt to 'Informal' African Market
April, 14 2015
Africa - Insurance companies are struggling to gain a foothold in Africa, where populations tend to favour community insurance schemes called tontines. These are often informal agreements between trusted friends and family members
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What Are the Impacts of Microfinance, Really?
April, 14 2015
Global - While certain initial expectations of microfinance have not been fulfilled, many agree that the institution has had enough successes that it should remain in place but with reforms
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Liberia: Microfinance Chairman Promises More Capacity Building
April, 12 2015
Liberia - The newly elected chairman of the Network of Microfinance in Liberia (NEMIL), Rev. Steve N. Gaye, has promised to focus on capacity building of member institutions, including seeking national and international support for the network
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India: Positive Microfinance Trend
April, 12 2015
India - The gross loan portfolio of microfinance institutions (MFIs), registered with the Reserve Bank of India as non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), can cross Rs 1 lakh crore by March 31, 2018
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India: Coming of Age - Institutional Investors See Investment Merit in NBFCs, MFIs
April, 10 2015
India - Institutional investors in the debt market are gradually gaining confidence about looking beyond traditional government and highly-rated corporate debt to bonds and other debt instruments issued by non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs). NBFCs and MFIs are also helping create this new market, either by issuing debentures or pooling their debt assets.
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Only 2.6m Nigerians Operate MFB Accounts – Investigation
April, 09 2015
Nigeria - Despite the huge numbers of Microfinance Banks, MFBs, operating in the country and regulatory authorities’ efforts to use them as channels for financial inclusion, investigations have confirmed that only 2.6 million of the adult population had MFB accounts
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Kenya: Why M-Shwari Works
April, 08 2015
Kenya - With the rapid uptake of M-Shwari, Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) is the envy of the digital financial services industry
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Joshua Goldstein, CFI: Is Loan-Officer-Centricity a Key to Customer-Centricity? What Does Starbucks Teach Us?
April, 08 2015
Global - “Customer-centric” is defined by businessdictionary.com “as creating a positive customer experience at the point of sale and post-sale.” Gerhard Coetzee, Senior Financial Sector Specialist at CGAP, and his team are exploring how customer-centricity can be best customized and then operationalized for low-income people, in particular the unbanked and clients of financial institutions (FIs), with a strong emphasis on “customer empowerment.
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India: New Bank to Fund Micro Units, More Relief for Farmers
April, 08 2015
India - On the new banking scheme, Modi said he was delivering on a promise made. "After 'banking the un-banked' with the Jan Dhan Yojana, it's time to 'fund the unfunded'," he told the event to launch what is formally called the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency - Mudra
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World Bank President Outlines Strategy to End Poverty, Welcomes New Development Partners
April, 07 2015
Global - World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim today announced a broad strategy to end extreme poverty by 2030, and he welcomed emerging players such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank, established by the BRICS countries, as potentially strong allies in the economic development of poor countries and emerging markets
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Malaysia: Finally a Capital Leg up
April, 04 2015
Malaysia - Irrespective of whether the intention is to stay small or to expand, opportunities are now being presented to the willing. These came with two recent announcements
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