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Scaling Impact Investing Using Blockchain Technology
May, 30 2019
Global - In a decentralized ecosystem, such as one powered by a blockchain network, the elimination of middlemen can significantly reduce transaction time and associated service charges. This results in notable reduction in the overall cost of capital and allows more of the actual capital earmarked for investment to be used for the socio-environmental initiative it was intended for
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India: IFC Leads $222 Mn Debt Funding Round in Cholamandalam
May, 29 2019
India - Cholamandalam’s core business is to provide commercial vehicle finance and loan against properties. Besides, the company also offers home loans, SME loans, investment advisory services and a variety of other financial services to customers
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Scaling Impact Investing to Trillions
May, 28 2019
Global - We need to stop the madness of door-to-door selling to institutional investors. We can’t change institutional investors overnight. However, a systematic approach to product innovation can open up the floodgates for early adopters across the institutional investment community to allocate billions to trillions needed to achieve the SDGs
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J. Johnston, Senior Associate, Convergence: How Donor Governments Blend
May, 28 2019
Global - Switzerland is one example of a donor government that promotes the use of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to mobilize additional development finance in line with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. As ODA levels have remained relatively flat over the last few years, both of Switzerland’s development agencies – the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) – have recognized the important role of the private sector in closing the $2.5 trillion SDG funding gap. Both of these agencies are in the process of stepping up their private sector engagement with a specific focus on blended finance
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India: IFC to Invest $35 million in Manappuram Finance
May, 28 2019
India - IFC, a sister organisation of the World Bank, will invest $35 million in Manappuram Finance Limited (MFL) to help low-income households and small enterprises avail loans against their gold assets, Manappuram said in a statement on Tuesday
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India: Samunnati Raises $55 Million from US-based Nuveen
May, 28 2019
India - Samunnati Financial Intermediation and Services Pvt. Ltd, a non-banking financial company specializing in loans to farmers and entities engaged in agriculture, has raised ₹387 crore in a Series D round led by Nuveen, the investment management arm of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA)
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Al Jazeera Launches Business Site AJ Impact
May, 22 2019
Global - The business site will focus on four key areas: global economy, inequality, technology and the burgeoning field of impact investing, which seeks to produce healthy outcomes for people and the planet as well as financial returns
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Haiti Clean Fund Manager Appointed
May, 22 2019
Haiti - Bamboo Capital Partners has been selected as international fund manager for a $17m energy access fund by the Government of Haiti and the World Bank
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AXIS and Innpact Launch Mauritius Impact Finance Gateway to Africa
May, 21 2019
Mauritius - Axis and Innpact have launched the first impact investing platform in Mauritius, the Mauritius Impact Finance Gateway to Africa (MIFGA), which enables fund promoters to set-up and manage impact finance vehicles in an efficient and cost-effective manner
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Generation Closes $1B Growth Fund Targeting Sustainable Startups
May, 21 2019
Global - The Sustainable Solutions Fund plans to back later-stage startups that work on sustainability in at least one of three areas — environmental solutions; healthcare; and financial inclusion— and are creating financially sustainable businesses out of that focus
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Banking for the Unbanked: The Growth of Fintech in Egypt
May, 19 2019
Egypt - Over the past few years, financial inclusion has been brought to the forefront in Egypt as a means for financial sector growth. Along with the increasing need for innovation and the shift towards digitisation, plenty of fintech startups have emerged in the country
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An Approach to Responsible Investing
May, 16 2019
Global - When it comes to investing, you don’t have to leave your values behind. Instead, they can become a roadmap for the development of an investment portfolio
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The How-To: Measuring Outcomes of Impact Investing
May, 15 2019
Global - With the world facing different challenges, including the finite amounts of water, natural resources and land which all are already heavily tarnished by humans, as well as a less predictable climate, one of the major concerns is how to provide for nine billion people by 2050?
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Put Equity First in Climate Adaptation
May, 15 2019
Global - Adaptation must be equitable. Policymakers must put the needs of the most vulnerable first. They should align development and climate policies and actions from local to global scales, and supply public information about risks and solutions. Scientists must elucidate links between poverty, risk and loss to allow global targets to be reset
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Why the World Needs National Development Banks
May, 15 2019
Global - By counteracting major shortcomings of the private financial sector, national and multilateral development banks play a crucial role in supporting economic growth. Countries that already have national development banks should aim to expand their role, while others should consider establishing them
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Financial Inclusion: Promoting Insurance among Women
May, 15 2019
Philippines - The International Finance Corp. of the World Bank Group has launched an advocacy program to promote insurance among women. In pursuing this program in the Philippines, the IFC has partnered with Insular Life Assurance Co. (InLife) in 2018 under a program called “Sheroes”
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Aim for Full Financial Inclusion in the Middle East
May, 14 2019
Middle East - Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME), women and youth continue to enjoy relatively low access to finance in the region. Some of the reasons that perpetuate this trend include social norms, low representation of women in the labour market, as well as entrepreneurship and youth unemployment
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Private Equity Lets No Opportunity Go to Waste
May, 13 2019
Global - Private equity may not be famed for its ethical credentials. Yet a clutch of niche firms specialising in environmental, social and governance themes has emerged to take advantage of the strengthening business case around responsible investing
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Cambodia: Second Corporate Bond by LOLC Listed on CSX
May, 10 2019
Cambodia - Cambodia's second corporate bond issued by microfinance firm LOLC (Cambodia) Plc officially listed in the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) on Friday, after it was completely purchased by institutional investors when the subscription period ended on April 26
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India: SIDBI and Equifax Launch a Microfinance Quarterly Newsletter
May, 10 2019
India - On the occasion of the launch of the report, Shri. Mohammad Mustafa, IAS, Chairman & Managing Director, SIDBI said, “This newsletter is the result of the great synergy between SIDBI and Equifax. The publication will give an opportunity to look into the future prospects apart from being a repository of all that has taken place in the microfinance sector in the recent past.
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LeapFrog Breaks Impact Investing Record, with $700M Emerging Markets Fund
May, 10 2019
Global - LeapFrog Investments has announced the largest-ever private equity fund by a dedicated impact fund manager, surging past its $600m target to reach $700m. The new fund invests in healthcare and financial services companies – tapping into the demand from billions of emerging consumers in Asia and Africa. This fund alone targets reaching 70 million emerging consumers.
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Nigeria: Financial Technology is Driving Financial Inclusion.
May, 09 2019
Nigeria - The rise in technology development, coupled with the growing need to create financial solutions that are capable of meeting current financial challenges, has birthed what has come to be referred to as Financial Technology (FinTech). It synthesises both the financial and technology sector
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BRAC Uganda Now a Commercial Bank
May, 08 2019
Uganda - This new development is expected to tighten competition in the Tier II credit category currently dominated by Post Bank, Opportunity Bank, Mercantile Credit Bank Ltd and Top Finance Bank
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Inside the Quest to Measure the Impact of Impact Investing
May, 08 2019
Global - Attempts have been made for years to systematize and popularize various flavors of impact measurement, but no single method has achieved mass adoption. The latest move toward standardization comes from one of the industry’s biggest investors and is built around calculating impact in dollars
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WB Proposes Cambodia’s 1st Corporate Bonds Issue
May, 07 2019
Cambodia - “The IFC investment in the first Khmer Riel bond in Cambodia is to help create a domestic corporate bond market in Cambodia and to support the company in raising funding to finance the growth of its lending program to micro borrowers including farmers and women borrowers in the rural areas,” the IFC said in its filling
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Fixed Income: Bite-Sized Sukuk with Blockchain
May, 07 2019
Global - Traditionally, it has been difficult for retail investors to access bonds and sukuk due to their high cost and huge lot sizes. But this is changing as more players are exploring the use of blockchain to increase access to the fixed-income space
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What’s Microfinancing Doing in Blockchain Space?
May, 06 2019
Global - The beauty of blockchain is that it’s steadily making its way through communities and now seeking to engage 1.7 Billion unbanked productive individuals through making funds accessible to micro, small and medium enterprises
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How Companies Get Cheaper Loans for Doing Social Good
May, 05 2019
Global - Global issuance of loans linked to ESG performance surged almost seven-fold last year to $36.4 billion, riding a wave of global demand for financing options that let companies promote themselves as socially responsible.
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Africa Must Unleash the Power of its Financial Markets
May, 02 2019
Africa - A broad, all-inclusive financial market that makes it easy for investors will be the key to fostering financial inclusion, economic development and raising the capital needed to scale businesses and boost infrastructure
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Bangladesh: Is Microfinance the Solution to Informal Employment?
May, 02 2019
Bangladesh - Microfinance can work as a controller to the growing “push” factors of rural-urban migration. Microfinance can create new sectors of business in the rural area which can ultimately create decentralization, reducing the unemployment level and motivating self-employment
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