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CBA Uganda to Offer Direct Mobile Lending
January, 31 2016
Uganda - Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) is introducing a Mobile Micro Savings and Loans product in Uganda allowing customers to borrow money via their phones
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Philippine Banks Braced for More Mergers
January, 30 2016
Philippines - The trend is being driven in large part by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which has been actively working to create a less fragmented banking environment and foster greater financial inclusion
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What Data Can Do to Fight Poverty
January, 29 2016
Global - IF social scientists and policy makers have learned anything about how to help the world’s poorest people, it’s not to trust our intuitions or anecdotal evidence about what kinds of antipoverty programs are effective
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Cambodia: New Japanese MFI to Assist Farmers
January, 28 2016
Cambodia - Japanese financial services firm Idemitsu Credit said it had started operations in its local subsidiary that will provide financing and instalment payment services to the agricultural sector in Battambang
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Cambodia: Thai Bank Buys Local MFI in Mammoth Deal
January, 28 2016
Cambodia - In what may be the biggest deal in Cambodia’s financial sector history, Thailand-based Bank of Ayudhya has reached an agreement to acquire the local microfinance institution (MFI) Hattha Kaksekar, with the deal expected to be valued at upwards of $140 million
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IFC Provides up to $50m to NBK-Egypt
January, 27 2016
Egypt - The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, provided a loan of up to $50m to the National Bank of Kuwait-Egypt (NBK-Egypt) to boost access to finance for medium-sized businesses and promote sustainable energy financing (SEF) in Egypt
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C. Caruso, SVP of Channels & Technology, Accion: The Exciting Promise of Digital Payments in Peru
January, 26 2016
Peru - Peru’s pursuit of financial inclusion has set a standard, helping the country capture the top ranking in The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Microscope for the past eight years. Accion’s Channels & Technology team, an advisory practice within Accion focused on digital financial services (DFS), recently returned from Lima, where we saw firsthand the exciting promise of digital payments in Peru
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M. Martin, Founder, Impact Economy: Impact Investing - Four Opportunities for 2016
January, 25 2016
Global - If impact is to become the third dimension against which we screen every investment—next to risk and return—it’s just like the treadmill in the gym: It’s about running fast enough, and long enough. Fortunately, we have four opportunities to source massive amounts of fresh investments across different asset classes and geographies to make 2016 count
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Tanzania Fails to Gain from Digital Wealth
January, 25 2016
Tanzania - One would have thought that the spread of the internet and the wide use of mobile phones would have made the 2010's Tanzanian society economically better off than that of 1990 due to the attendant benefits associated with digital technologies. Right? Not necessarily
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B. Bossone and A. Sarr: Making Financial Inclusion a Reality for the Unbanked
January, 25 2016
Global - In the early 2000s, when we were both at the IMF, we studied how to redesign a domestic monetary system around the concept of non-credit money; that is, a system where – unlike conventional banking – money creation is separated from lending and money is provided to beneficiaries on a non-lending basis.
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Prudential Financial and LeapFrog Investments Launch a Partnership in Africa
January, 21 2016
Africa - Dr. Andrew Kuper, founder and CEO of LeapFrog Investments, said, “The global insurance industry is looking for ways to close the protection gap for millions of people in emerging markets. This partnership will help address that need, while tapping some of the world’s highest growth markets
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Cambodia: Acleda Applauds NBC’s MoU with Myanmar
January, 21 2016
Cambodia - The country’s largest lender by branches, Acleda Bank, has welcomed the move by the National Bank of Cambodia to forge closer ties with the Central Bank of Myanmar as Acleda moves to expand its business in Myanmar’s credit-deficient market
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IFC: Subordinated Loan to Ameriabank to Help Cash-strapped Businesses in Armenia
January, 21 2016
Armenia - Subordinated loan to Ameriabank will increase access to finance for Armenian businesses facing recent tightening of the emerging markets and the economy of the immediate region, Mr Tomasz Telma, IFC Director for Europe and Central Asia, said Thursday in Yerevan at the ceremony of signing two financial agreements by Ameriabank CJSC (one with the EBRD, and the other with the IFC)
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Will India Go Cashless if Mobile Payments Take Off?
January, 19 2016
India - So can mobile wallets in India mirror the success that mobile payment tech has enjoyed in countries like Kenya, where more than 90% of the adult population has signed up to Vodafone's M-pesa payment platform
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Visa Announces Chinese Financial Education Push
January, 19 2016
China - In a move that might endear Visa to Chinese authorities, the global card network announced that it will work with local organizations in China to promote financial inclusion and education through mobile technology.
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Myanmar: Still a Lenders’ Market
January, 19 2016
Myanmar - Neighbourhood pawnshops, and other informal lenders, are the only source of finance for most in Myanmar. The formal finance industry, crippled by decades of mismanagement by military rulers, is inaccessible to all but the wealthiest and state-run institutions don’t have the resources to effectively reach most of the largely rural population
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India: IFMR Launches Rs250 Crore Debt Fund
January, 19 2016
India - IFMR Investment Managers Pvt Ltd, a Chennai-based asset management company, is raising a Rs.250 crore (about $38 million) debt fund to invest in businesses that target consumers at the bottom half of the pyramid, such as firms that finance affordable housing or agri-business
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62 People Own the Same as Half the World, Reveals Oxfam Davos Report
January, 18 2016
Global - Although world leaders have increasingly talked about the need to tackle inequality, and in September agreed a global goal to reduce it, the gap between the richest and the rest has widened dramatically in the past 12 months. Oxfam’s prediction, made ahead of last year’s Davos, that the 1% would soon own more than the rest of us, actually came true in 2015 – a year earlier than expected
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Latin America: Ending Poverty in 140 Characters
January, 18 2016
Latin America - It’s estimated that Latin America’s 15 million family farms work around 400 million hectares of land. These producers are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the region. However, this sector is among those who look to benefit most from digital technology
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Nigeria: Commercial Banks Should Grant Loan to MfB’s - IFC
January, 18 2016
Nigeria - "If you look at MfBs that are borrowing in Nigeria today, they are borrowing from the CBN and the other lenders are international lenders. International lenders see value in some of the MfBs in the country and they invest in them. It is imperative for Nigeria institutions to be seeing the value of MfBs in Nigeria.
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MUDRA Not to Regulate Micro Finance Institutions: Govt
January, 18 2016
India - Clarifying its stand on regulation of microfinance companies, the government has said that the Reserve Bank of India would continue to regulate MFIs registered as non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) with the central bank. MFIs will not be regulated by the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank, as proposed by the finance ministry earlier
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Ingenico Group Deploys Terminals to Boost Financial Inclusion in Africa
January, 18 2016
Sub-saharan Africa - Ingenico Group, the global leader in seamless payment, has declared that it has reached a strategic fifty-thousand terminals landmark to serve the unbanked population and becomes the acclaimed financial inclusion-enabler in Africa, reports Footprint to Africa
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India: NBFC-MFIs to Take a Hit as RBI Reins in Self-help Groups
January, 15 2016
India - Banks are asked by RBI to start sharing SHG data with credit bureaus. This move will put a check on overleveraging and borrowings by individuals from multiple sources and can possibly strain the asset quality of a few NBFC-MFIs, says a repor
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Major UAE and Oman Banks Along with ADB Fund Sri Lanka's LOLC Finance
January, 13 2016
Sri Lanka - Major Omani and UAE banks along with Asian Development Bank (ADB) have funded a $69 million facility through a syndicate loan for Sri Lanka's LOLC Finance, Alpen Capital of Dubai, which has acted as the financial advisor to LOLC Finance, said in a statement.
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This Impact Investor in Ethiopia Fills Financing Gap
January, 13 2016
Ethiopia - There are more and more people doing impact investing in Africa, seeking both to be of help to the people there and to take advantage of the rapidly growing economies there. Matt Davis of RENEW LLC is one of this breed of impact investors
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India: Equitas Holdings Gets Nod for IPO
January, 12 2016
India - The microfinance institution, which in September received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for launching a small finance bank, aims to raise almost Rs.2,000 crore as foreign investors in the company are looking to sell their stake to ensure compliance with RBI’s ownership norms
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Uganda: How Amended Financial Law Could Revolutionise Banking
January, 11 2016
Uganda - After nearly six years in the making, it took Members of Parliament a single day to pass amendments to the 2004 Financial Institutions Act. The much-awaited reforms, expected to boost operations of banks in the country, were passed by the Parliament last Wednesday
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What Excludes Women from Formal Finance in the Arab States?
January, 11 2016
Middle East and North Africa - What is interesting is that few countries in the region recognize this gender gap as a problem. Mostly it is seen as a form of “protection” for women – a paternalistic and patriarchal approach to development.
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‘Sustainable Investing’ Goes Mainstream
January, 10 2016
Global - Long viewed as a niche asset class catering to wealthy individuals and institutions that wanted to avoid controversial industries such as tobacco and firearms, sustainable investing seemed to turn a corner last year
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Social Impact Bonds and Financial Inclusion
January, 05 2016
Global - Social Impact Bonds can change perspectives where social issues move from being budget issues to business cases. The proposal is very appealing for impact investors as it offers new opportunities to deploy capital for social impact, with a strong focus on accountability and credible measurement of the achieved impact
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Myanmar: SMEs Still Struggle to Source Financing
January, 05 2016
Myanmar - Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the backbone of Myanmar’s economy, say they are still struggling to source financing for start-ups and business expansion with insufficient funding made available by banks
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Impact Investing: The Social Entrepreneurship Revolution
January, 04 2016
Global - The success of an investment is increasingly defined not just by risk and return but also its impact on society. Silvia Pavoni talks to the investors that demand purpose along with profit, and that are bringing about a revolution in the process
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20 Years of Financial Inclusion in East Africa: 4 Major Shifts
January, 04 2016
East Africa - East Africa’s innovation in financial services has changed the global inclusion landscape; going forward to maintain its global leadership role, the diverse provider community must continue to innovate to create financial products that the poor really need and trust at a price they can afford
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India: Ujjivan Files Papers for IPO
January, 04 2016
India - Bengaluru-based microfinance firm Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd has filed its draft red herring prospectus with the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its initial public offering (IPO).
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Why “Inefficiency” is Needed in Energy Financing for Africa
January, 03 2016
Africa - One of the most important findings noted at the Africa launch of the World Bank's Progress Toward Sustainable Energy: Global Tracking Framework 2015 (GTF) report for the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, is that despite recent trends to increase investment in the energy sector, we still need to double the number of new connections to modern energy services per year to reach universal access to energy by 2030
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Electrifying India, With the Sun and Small Loans
January, 02 2016
India - Solar power accounts for just 1 percent of India’s current electricity production, mostly through large plants that contribute power to the grid, but a generation of Indian energy entrepreneurs is out to prove that a faster, cleaner and ultimately more economical route to universal electrification is through solar home systems
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