Notice

The 'Industry Information' and 'Fund Information' modules previously included with the 'Research Accounts' are moving to Tameo Analytics, managed by Tameo.
You can register here to be notified of the launch of the Tameo Analytics platform.
From mid-September 2022, this information will no longer be available on syminvest.com.

News

Print
Aug 2018
Asa International Taps Microfinance Demand
August, 31 2018
Global - ASA International (ASAI) became the first publicly listed microfinance company in Europe when its shares began trading on the premium segment of London’s main market in July. ...
Moving Past Microfinance: How India’s Small Finance Banks Aim to Take Financial Inclusion to the Next Level
August, 29 2018
India - India is the largest microfinance market in the world, and although microfinance in India is restricted to simple, unsophisticated loans, the sector has thrived, lending to hundreds of millions of unbanked citizens. In 2016, the final year before India’s small finance banks began operating, microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India had a collective loan book of 639 billion rupees ($9.4 billion) ...
Sustainable Development of Villages Is Needed
August, 28 2018
India - SBI’s Prashant Kumar says they want to have total development of villages in terms of skill development, financial inclusion, providing them credit for education, healthcare facility and cleanlines ...
HKL to Issue Cambodia’s First Bond
August, 27 2018
Cambodia - Hattha Kaksekar Limited, one of the largest microfinance institutions in the country, will issue the first corporate bond in the country, after obtaining approval from the Central Bank earlier this month ...
IFC Loaning $55m to Argentina’s Banco Industrial (Bind) to Boost SME Lending
August, 27 2018
Argentina - The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a unit of the World Bank Group, recently agreed to loan USD 55 million to Argentina’s Banco Industrial (Bind) to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with “longer-term financing than [is] currently available in the local market. ...
Philippines: Livelihood for Women
August, 26 2018
Philippines - The world has changed. It opens a lot of opportunities to women who were only seen as housewives before. Women are now on the rise from the bottom-pit status in the society and a lot of stories have been told about them competing in the business industry, an industry which is undeniably dominated by men ...
NEL ICO: “How NEL Network Is Empowering Communities With Blockchain Based Microfinance”
August, 24 2018
Global - With the latest Findex Reports estimating around 2 billion people across the globe without access to any banking or financial services, Singapore based NEL (New Economy Ledger) foundation is taking unique initiatives to empower communities in developing countries with its blockchain based innovative microfinance solution ...
What Social Enterprises in the Global South Can Teach the North
August, 23 2018
Global - Many southern-hemisphere social enterprises excel at planning, scaling, and extending their influence—important lessons for the rest of the world ...
Nigeria: Only 49% of Nigerians Have Bank Accounts, Says Report
August, 22 2018
Nigeria - Latest report from the Lagos Business School (LBS), has revealed that 49 per cent of Nigerians have viable bank accounts thus making the country's financial inclusion efforts move at a slow pace ...
Kenya’s Digital Bond Offers Broader Lesson for Africa Fintech
August, 21 2018
Kenya - To generate economic growth capable of lifting millions out of poverty, Africa must confront a critical problem: a lack of finance ...
RCBC Launches First Digital Cash, Makes Transactions Easier for More Filipinos
August, 21 2018
Philippines - Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), with the support of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), is taking the lead in bringing digital financial services closer to more Filipinos as it works with eCurrency Mint’s solution to introduce ePiso. It is the country’s first digital currency that is stored in a mobile wallet app to enable everyone to enjoy daily cashless transactions ...
Brac and Osiris Group Launch Impact Fund for Bangladesh and Other Frontier Markets
August, 21 2018
Bangladesh - International development organization Brac and private equity firm Osiris Group are looking for emerging-market investment opportunities in education, healthcare, the digital economy, and improving access to goods and services. ...
UBS Launches Impact Mutual Funds for U.S. Private Clients
August, 20 2018
Global - As part of its new 100% U.S. sustainable cross-asset portfolios, UBS Global Wealth Management is rolling out two mutual funds that aim to create a more direct social and environmental impact than existing funds that simply target companies with superior environmental, social, and governance—or ESG—practices ...
FINCA International Launches FINCA Ventures, an Impact Investing Initiative
August, 20 2018
Global - Providing patient capital and support to early-stage social enterprises serving the bottom of the pyrami ...
Ghana: EOCO Opens Fire on 30 Microfinance Institutions
August, 20 2018
Ghana - The Bank of Ghana, (BoG) has given assurance that it will deal ruthlessly with directors and shareholders of microfinance finance companies found to have diverted depositors’ funds or engaged in fraudulent activities ...
Chinese E-ommerce Giant to Begin Services in Pakistan This Year
August, 17 2018
Pakistan - Alipay invested $184.5 million for a 45% stake in Telenor Microfinance Bank, a subsidiary of Telenor Group. The investment was made with the aim to further the development of Telenor Microfinance Bank’s mobile payment and digital financial services in Pakistan ...
India: More Suitors Join Race to Acquire Madura Microfinance
August, 17 2018
India - Bids to buy Chennai-based micro lender Madura Microfinance is intensifying with a US private equity fund matching first suitor Federal Bank’s offer, and the close race underlined the potential of the industry, two senior people close to the development said. ...
Impact Investing Embeds Itself into Emerging Markets Private Equity
August, 16 2018
Global - How can private equity investors channel capital into impact investing and emerging market investing while meeting the requirements of institutional investors ...
Georgia’s Predatory Lenders Are Punishing the Poor
August, 15 2018
Georgia - Georgian indebtedness has reached crisis proportions. And lenders take scant look at customers’ creditworthiness ...
Figure of the Week: Financial Inclusion in Madagascar
August, 15 2018
Madagascar - Financial access is growing rapidly in Madagascar: From 2014 to 2017, the percent of adults that had a financial account or used mobile money services doubled from 9 percent to 18 percent. ...
2m Nigerians to Get Collateral-free Loans in FG’s New Micro Credit for Petty Traders
August, 14 2018
Nigeria - In a determined bid to further enlarge its financial inclusion agenda for all Nigerians regardless of social class and economic status, the Muhammadu Buhari administration has launched a new initiative under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) ...
Has ESG Gone Mainstream?
August, 13 2018
Global - The announcement that the world's largest fund management company, BlackRock, will require its fund managers to consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria in their investment decision-making process has been discussed widely in the trade press over the last few days ...
China: Auto-Backed Financing Provider Weidai Seeks $100 Million in NYSE IPO
August, 13 2018
China - Weidai Ltd., which connects small- and micro-businesses in China with online and institutional lenders, has filed a prospectus seeking to raise up to $100 million in its initial public offering in New York, significantly less than was originally anticipated ...
Tanzania: Why Financial Inclusion Is Key to Boosting Agriculture
August, 09 2018
Tanzania - For years, people in rural Tanzania, most of who are the major players in the sector, have remained financially excluded in the sense that most financial institutions don’t have products tailored to cover the farming communities ...
Bangladesh: Financial Inclusion for All by 2024
August, 09 2018
Bangladesh - The time period for implementation of the first National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) for Bangladesh has been set from 2019-2024 in the draft of the strategy ...
€15 Million of EU Financing for Micro-entrepreneurs in #Latvia under #JunckerPlan
August, 09 2018
Lativia - The European Investment Fund (EIF) and ALTUM, a state-owned development institution of Latvia, have signed a microfinance guarantee agreement under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI). ...
India: Microfinance Institutions Plan to Take IPO Route to Fund Growth Plans
August, 09 2018
India - After nearly a decade, microfinance institutions (MFIs) are again looking at raising funds through initial public offerings (IPOs) of equity ...
Luxembourg's Nurturing Ecosystem for Ethical and Responsible Investment Funds
August, 08 2018
Luxembourg - According to the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry, sustainable and responsible investing will lead the agenda for asset management firms in 2018 as one of the key pillars for the industry in the year ahead along with UCITS (Undertakings for the Collective Investment of Transferable Securities) and alternative investment funds ...
Myanmar Pushes Financial Inclusion to Reduce Poverty
August, 07 2018
Myanmar - The financial sector is expected to focus on giving low-income individuals access to affordable financial services as a means to reduce poverty, as adult access to formal service has increased by 18 percent over the past five years ...
Alternative Forms of Giving and Investing
August, 07 2018
Global - Venture philanthropy is a term that has increasingly gained traction among private wealth owners in Asia as an alternative means of creating positive social and environmental impact. It is often mentioned alongside impact investing. ...
Nigeria: Insurers Move to Increase Patronage Through Financial Inclusion
August, 05 2018
Nigeria - Despite having the largest population in Africa, Nigeria currently has one of the lowest levels of insurance penetration on the continent ...
1.1 Million Colombians Joined the Formal Financial System in 2017
August, 05 2018
Colombia - With another 1.1 million people securing some sort of financial product in 2017, roughly four out of five Colombians now are a part of the formal financial sector ...
S. Graham, Director of Consumer Research and Field Data Services, FINCA International: A Shifting Frontier - How Mobile Money Is Reshaping the Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion
August, 03 2018
Global - Many organizations supporting microfinance, including FINCA International where I lead Customer Research and Field Data Services, are dedicated to addressing this gender gap by finding more efficient ways of reaching women and delivering financial tools that can improve their lives ...
More to Be Done on Sustainable Investment
August, 02 2018
Global - Axel Weber makes some good points in “ How to sustain investments that make a difference” (July 30). There are further grassroots issues ...
UK Is Leading the Way in Fintech Funding
August, 01 2018
United Kingdom - Global fintech investment is up overall, hitting $57.9 billion across 875 deals in the first half of 2018, according to a KPMG report covered by CityAM. That's 34% higher than the $38.1 billion seen in the entirety of 2017 ...

Research Analysis Tools

The fund indexes, institution benchmarks and other market information displayed here are all Symbiotics designed analysis tools, created in-house by our analysts and experts. Symbiotics has one of the oldest track records in microfinance investment analysis dating back to the late 1990s; its indexes and benchmarks have been regularly used as markers by investors, asset managers, financial institutions and practitioners. These, as well as several other research products, are available through the Research Account. Click on the link below to find out more.

Learn More