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Jun 2015
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Archives:
Fullerton India Raises Rs450 Crore from IFC
June, 30 2015
India - The funds were raised through secured non-convertible debentures, with an average maturity period of five years ...
Central Bankers Shouldn't Fret Over Mobile Money
June, 30 2015
Global - A little more than a year ago, the Gates Foundation commissioned the University of Oxford to look at the question of how mobile money affects monetary policy. This is an important question for policymakers and one that has emerged as a fear from time to time in the central banker community ...
Three Thai Banks Join IFC's Microfinance Push in Cambodia
June, 30 2015
Cambodia - The syndication to PRASAC Microfinance Institution Ltd, the country's biggest microfinance provider, comprises $20 million each from Thai banks - Kiatnakin Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, and TMB Bank, and $5 million from ING Bank NV ...
Amitabh Saxena & Selma Ribica, Digital Disruptions, M-Pesa: Three Winning Conditions to Enable Mobile Money Interoperability
June, 29 2015
Global - Interoperability has enormous potential to transform the financial services landscape in emerging markets and produce significant gains in financial inclusion ...
India: SKS Microfinance Rides on Microcredit Resurgence
June, 28 2015
India - In the past 18 months, SKS Microfinance Ltd shares have gained 140%—more than thrice as much as the BSE 200 index. The clear trigger for this rise is the turnaround in the microfinance firm’s business: its Andhra Pradesh portfolio, the centre of the 2012 crisis, has been written off entirely and return on assets was in excess of 5% ...
Devin Thorpe, Forbes: Impact Investing Goes Mainstream - Is it Time You Thought about it?
June, 27 2015
Global - “Traditionally, impact investing was thought of as low profit or even nonprofit work. Increasingly, there has been the realization that there does not need to be any tradeoff between profit and purpose if the business has the right idea and is run in a disciplined manner. ...
Mexico: A Light in the Darkness
June, 27 2015
Mexico - Technology is taking finance where banks fear to tread ...
Smart Money: Blockchains Are the Future of the Internet
June, 27 2015
Global - One application could be "smart contracts" and micro-contracts that enable you securely to execute tiny transactions. Such micro-contracts offer hope to the unbanked and uncreditworth ...
Uganda: Insurance Authority to Attract Micro Insurers
June, 26 2015
Uganda - The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) will soon start licensing micro-insurance players to enable low-income earners access cheaper insurance services ...
Private Impact Investing Funds Yielded Financial Performance in Line with Similar Private Investment Funds With No Social Objective, According to New Impact Investing Benchmark
June, 25 2015
Global - Cambridge Associates and the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) introduce first benchmark to provide financial performance data on private investment funds in growing impact investing industry ...
Tanzania: Optimism High as Micro Lender Launches IPO
June, 24 2015
Tanzania - Microfinance primary share sales to the public is expected to be oversubscribed since the institution operates at the grassroots level, according to an industry analyst ...
Pakistan: SBP Issues 10th Microfinance Banking License to Apna MFB
June, 24 2015
Pakistan - The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday issued 10th nationwide microfinance banking license to Apna Microfinance Bank Limited (former Network Microfinance Bank Limited) ...
2 Indian MFIs Commit to Help End Poverty with the Microcredit Summit Campaign: Equitas and Grama Vidiyal
June, 23 2015
India - The 2 Indian MFIs are committing to expand their microfinance services (especially non-financial) as well as continue to measure poverty levels of their clients. ...
Maria A. May, Senior Program Manager, BRAC’s Social Innovation Lab: Six Questions for Microfinance's Biggest 'Haters'
June, 23 2015
Global - Why it's time for the sector to shake off its critics ...
SIDBI Sets Up Rs 1000 Crore ‘Make in India’ Fund for MSMEs
June, 22 2015
India - Keeping in with the spirit of 'Make in India' drive of GOI, the Small Industries Development Bank of India SIDBI has set up a Rs 1000 crore 'Make in India' fund for MSMEs. "The objective is to make our MSMEs world class manufacturing hub. Under the fund, concessional finance will be provided to the identified MSME sectors", bank added ...
Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean: Starbucks Pours Additional $30M into Coffee-farm Loans
June, 22 2015
Central America, Mexico and Caribbean - Starbucks renewed a commitment to fund loans for coffee farmers in a bid to strengthen the often wobbly supply chain for the bean that underpins its sprawling empire ...
Dr Fahmida Khatun, Research Director, CPD: Bangladesh - Technology for Financial Inclusion
June, 22 2015
Bangladesh - The success of branchless banking services, like mobile financial services in Bangladesh, helps us to dream of full financial inclusion in future ...
Seven Customer Risks That Need Attention Now
June, 19 2015
Global - CGAP’s latest Focus Note, Doing Digital Finance Right: The Case for Stronger Mitigation of Customer Risks, reveals new evidence on customers’ perceptions and experiences with risks, and the ways these risks harm their trust, uptake, and use of the services ...
Geri Spieler, Research Analyst: Opportunities for Microfinance in Sub-Saharan Africa
June, 19 2015
Sub-Saharan Africa - The challenge of delivering affordable financial services to low-income markets in Sub-Saharan Africa is an urgent one. ...
IFC Supports Myanmar’s Business Regulatory Reforms to Improve Investment Climate
June, 19 2015
Myanmar - These reforms will make it easier to do business in Myanmar and will help stimulate private sector growth and attract sustainable foreign investment ...
Incofin Investment Management Announces the First Close of the agRIF Fund for USD 71 Million
June, 19 2015
Global - The Fund will invest in financial intermediaries in emerging economies that enhance financial inclusion of smallholder farmers and rural micro, small, and medium sized entrepreneurs (MSMEs) in the agricultural value chain ...
Rajat Gandhi, CEO, Faircent.com: India - Women in Business; Can P2P Lending Bridge Gender Gap in Access to Capital
June, 19 2015
India - For a country like India where there is a distinct buzz around startups and entrepreneurship, the number of women entrepreneurs and women in business still continue to be far and few ...
Jungwon Byun, Consultant, Oliver Wyman: Zambia - The Big Advantages of Being Small
June, 18 2015
Zambia - How a mobile money startup beat the major players in Zambia ...
India: New Banks - Raising Low-cost Deposits Will Be a Challenge
June, 18 2015
India - MFIs currently depend on banks for their funding needs, which is an expensive option. Banks lend at 12-13 per cent interest to MFIs, which in turn lend at over 20 per cent to their clients. So, if Bandhan has to lower its lending rate and compete with banks, it will have to quickly ramp up its low-cost retail deposit base. ...
Pakistan: The Trouble with Over-the-Counter Digital Finance
June, 17 2015
Pakistan - Powerful agents and fractured markets cause challenges in Pakistan ...
How To Be Sure Your Social Impact Investments Are Thriving -- For You And The Cause
June, 17 2015
Global - HNWIs around the globe are increasingly interested in matching their donations with measurable impact investing that combines their desire to help others with the need to maintain their financial well being. ...
India: Aavishkaar Raises Rs 500 Crore for Foreign Investments
June, 17 2015
South Asia - Aavishkaar, India's biggest social entrepreneurship focused venture capital fund, would be investing about Rs 500 crore ($75 million) in start-ups from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. ...
IFC Supports CAMESA’s Inaugural Bond to Boost Microfinance, Capital Markets in Mexico
June, 17 2015
Mexico - IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has provided a guarantee to the first bond issued by Consorcio de Asistencia al Microemprendedor S.A. de C.V. (CAMESA) to support the company’s fundraising towards expanding its lending services to microfinance institutions in Mexico ...
India: Bandhan Financial Services Gets RBI Nod to Set Up Bank; to Begin Operations from August 23
June, 17 2015
India - The entity will be named as Bandhan Bank. "We will launch the bank in Kolkata, where Bandhan is headquartered, on August 23," its Chairman and Managing Director Chandra Shekhar Ghosh told reporters here today ...
IFC Provides $75 Million to Banco Continental to Boost Access to Finance in Paraguay
June, 16 2015
Paraguay - IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, provided a US$75 million loan to Banco Continental in Paraguay to increase access to finance for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that play a vital role in creating jobs and reducing poverty ...
The Next Fintech Sandbox
June, 16 2015
Global - Innovative as they are, financial solutions often overlook a key market: the 2 billion people worldwide who don’t have credit cards or bank accounts or don’t have ways to get them. What would the fintech landscape look like if the unbanked had access to these and other financial services? ...
Government of Ecuador Announces a Campaign Commitment: Financial Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities
June, 16 2015
Ecuador - The Microcredit Summit Campaign welcomes the Government of Ecuador as the first government to make a Campaign Commitment. They join a global coalition of 54 partner organizations working to help 100 million families lift themselves out of extreme poverty ...
Matt Homer: India Digitizes Its Merchants in Partnership with the U.S.
June, 15 2015
India - The focus on digitizing merchant payments is an important part of taking financial inclusion beyond account opening ...
Where Does Bitcoin Fit?
June, 14 2015
Global - Innovation and disruption are well and good, but without practical insertion of innovation into an existing industry or technology there is no value ...
European Union, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Turkish Government to Loan $380m to 15k Female Entrepreneurs in Northwest Turkey
June, 12 2015
Turkey - The programme intends to provide credit to approximately 15,000 businesswomen in Turkey ...
Rwanda's First Lady Launches $20M Initiative for Women, Reports KT Press
June, 12 2015
Rwanda - Rwanda's First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, has launched a $20 million initiative to support efforts of financially empowering women in the country ...
Heng Sotheavy, Amret: Designing Digital Financial Services for Cambodian Smallholders
June, 12 2015
Cambodia - While mobile networks cover much of the country, the development of mobile financial services has been limited by low levels of literacy among smallholder households ...
India: After Five-year Hiatus, Mutual Funds Turn to Investing in Microfinance Companies
June, 11 2015
India - Mutual funds have started investing in debt issuances of microfinance companies after a five-year hiatus. The lure of higher yields, top-grade ratings and shorter tenure of loans are prompting fund houses to park funds in microfinance securities ...
Dr Jason Hickel, Anthropologist, London School of Economics: The Microfinance Delusion; Who Really Wins?
June, 10 2015
Global - Far from being a panacea, small loans add to poverty and undermine people by saddling them with unsustainable debt, argues anthropologist Jason Hickel ...
Indonesia to Unleash Loan Funds as Micro Lending Rates Cut
June, 10 2015
Indonesia - Indonesia wants to unleash 30 trillion rupiah ($2.3 billion) of new loans for small businesses and halve some bank micro lending rates to help revive an economy running at its slowest pace in five years. ...
India: SAIJA–IDBI–MUDRA Ink Deal; Help Make PM's Dream of MUDRA Cards for Microfinance Clients a Reality
June, 10 2015
India - Bihar-based microfinance company, SAIJA Finance set a milestone once again in the sector as it entered into an MoU with IDBI Bank and MUDRA to distribute the ambitious and game-changing scheme of the Prime Minister to provide low cost funds to meet the working capital needs of micro entrepreneurs, freeing them from very high interest rates charged by local money lenders, which pushes small businesses into debt traps ...
Gary Ford and Benjamin D. Stone, MCE Social Capital: Loan Guarantees and Financial Inclusion in the Developing World
June, 10 2015
Global - As studies show, microfinance helps people build assets, manage risks and unpredictable income, and gain the freedom to decide how to make money ...
Sonja Kelly, CFI: Moving from Access to Inclusion
June, 10 2015
Global - New CFI report takes stock of progress - and pitfalls - on the road to full financial inclusion ...
James Militzer, NextBillion Financial Innovation: Humanitarian Disasters are Getting Worse - Can Cash Transfers Get Better?
June, 09 2015
Global - Navigating the challenges of e-transfer ...
Tanzania: FINCA Upgraded into Commercial Bank
June, 09 2015
Tanzania - FINCA Tanzania that operated as a micro-finance institution for the past 17 years has been upgraded into a fully-fledged bank as ‘FINCA Microfinance Bank’ ...
Tanzania: New Case Study Outlines Ways to Drive Financial Inclusion Through Mobile Technology
June, 08 2015
Tanzania - FINCA today released a case study to guide microfinance institutions wishing to implement mobile technology to increase financial inclusion ...
India: Profit From a Cause
June, 07 2015
India - Making and selling portable toilets? Investors wrinkled their noses when Rajeev Kher, Managing Director of Pune-based Saraplast Pvt Ltd, first sought funds from them in 1999. ...
Hermione Nevill, Operations Officer,World Bank Group: Financing Community-based Tourism
June, 06 2015
Global - 9 ways to get taken seriously ...
Pawan Bakhshi, Manoj Sharma, Graham Wright: What’s Undermining India’s Financial Inclusion Progress?
June, 05 2015
India - Over time, as payment volumes increase and the cost of processing DBT payments decreases, market forces and the bargaining capacity of banks will lead to lower commissions ...
Anabella Marciello: A 'Small Revolution' in Ecuador?
June, 04 2015
Ecuador - The world's first national e-money platform has reshaped the ecosystem - but will a government-led model work ...
Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion's 'By the Numbers' Report Assesses Progress toward Global Financial Inclusion
June, 04 2015
Global - 'By the Numbers' reveals that the entire world – including every region, income level, and demographic – is moving toward greater financial access ...
WEF: Business Leaders Push for Cooperation Among Regulators as Key to Financial Inclusion
June, 04 2015
Sub-Saharan Africa - Financial inclusion perceived as a driver of economic growth is a model of bringing the poorer people in the population and those outside the formal financial system into the financial system ...
India: Financial Inclusion Will Take Time - Industry Experts
June, 03 2015
India - Executives discuss the NDA’s government’s policies and challenges for the banking sector at Mint’s South India banking conclave ...
Can China’s Financial System Become More Inclusive?
June, 03 2015
China - It is not clear that the recent push to make finance truly inclusive is a break with past policies that have had limited success. For one, banks often try to refrain from lending to underfunded groups since they are higher credit risks ...
Don Shaffer, President and CEO, RSF Social Finance: Everyone Can Be an Impact Investor - Here's How to Start
June, 02 2015
Global - The movement toward investing in what's good instead of just screening out what's bad is growing, spurred by a new generation of investors ...
Jenny Nasr, Microinsurance Network: Paving the Way Out of Poverty
June, 02 2015
Global - Health microinsurance can keep a medical emergency from becoming a financial tragedy ...
Eduardo Ferreira, Head of Inclusive Business, Itaú: Banking the Unbanked in Brazil - The Value of Understanding People’s Stories
June, 02 2015
Brazil - Itaú Unibanco, the largest private bank in Latin America, has launched an initiative which offers microcredit and financial literacy advice to low-income Brazilians. ...
FinTech Firms Join SME Finance Forum - Supporting Small Businesses, Creating New Markets
June, 01 2015
Turkey - Leading FinTech companies are joining a G20-supported workshop in Turkey this week to showcase innovations in technology and big data that are helping small businesses get better access to credit ...
A New Kind of Infrastructure: Digital Infrastructure Must Be a Priority - and the Need Goes Beyond Technology
June, 01 2015
Global - With half of the world’s population on a mobile subscription, digital tools have the potential to tackle intractable development challenges better, faster and more sustainably ...

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