MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MIX Becoming Part of Accion’s Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI)

On June 1, 2020, MIX, the US-based NGO formerly known as the Microfinance Information Exchange, will become a unit of Accion’s Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) with the mission of performing “data-driven research that supports the decision-making of key stakeholders, including financial service providers [FSPs], investors, donors, regulators and policymakers” in order “to improve the lives of the 3 billion financially underserved people globally.” The transition is funded by two US-based funders, MetLife Foundation and Visa Foundation.

Founded in 2002, MIX has worked to set data standards for the microfinance industry and built the MIX Market database, which holds 11 years of information on thousands of FSPs.

Mayada El-Zhogbi, the managing director of CFI and future leader of the new unit said, “This combination will strengthen the Center for Financial Inclusion’s existing capabilities to surface insights and scale our learnings for impact.”

MIX CEO Camilla Nestor, who will join the CFI advisory board, commented, “Bringing MIX’s data expertise together with CFI’s applied research and advocacy capabilities allows us to demonstrate the value of mission-driven consolidation. As a single team, it will be possible to develop a robust knowledge base on the growing diversity of financial service providers, the direction of the sector, and the opportunities or risks that may emerge.”

Founded in 2008, CFI works with microfinance practitioners, regulators, banks, investors and academics in an effort to increase financial inclusion and promote client protection by connecting the microfinance community to capital markets, technology and advisory services. During 2018, Accion expended USD 6.3 million to support the center.

Accion is a US-based nonprofit that was founded in 1961 and seeks to alleviate poverty by offering services such as microenterprise loans and business training. The organization has 110 partner FSPs reaching entrepreneurs in 50 countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia. As of 2018, Accion reports total assets of USD 345 million.

During the year ending June 2019, MIX brought in revenue of USD 2 million.

By Andrew Janni, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

CFI press release
https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/mix-and-cfi-announce-strategic-integration-to-drive-industry-knowledge-for-inclusive-finance

Next Billion story
https://nextbillion.net/mix-center-financial-inclusion-joining-forces/

MIX homepage
https://www.themix.org

Internal Revenue Service financial data on MIX
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organizations-business-master-file-extract-eo-bmf

CFI homepage
https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/

Accion homepage
Https://www.accion.org

Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.