In an email exchange with US-based newspaper The Wall Street Journal, Grameen Bank founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus has been asked for his thoughts on efforts by the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the central bank of Bangladesh, to remove him from his position as managing director of Grameen Bank [1] [2] [3].
Category: Eastern Europe and Central Asia
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Closes $6.9m Loan to Tameer Micro Finance Bank Limited (TMFB) With Support of State Bank of Pakistan’s Micro Finance Credit Guarantee Facility
Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited, a subsidiary of UK-based Standard Chartered PLC, has closed a PKR 600 million (USD 6.95 million), two-year loan to Tameer Micro Finance Bank Limited, a licensed commercial bank that provides microfinance services in Pakistan. As of December 31, 2008, Tameer has total assets of USD 29.1 million, a gross loan portfolio of USD 11.5 million and 43,000 active borrowers.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) loans $9.8m to Romanian Microfinance Institution (MFI) Patria Credit
The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), a microfinance investment fund incorporated in Luxembourg, recently loaned the equivalent EUR 7 million (USD 9.86 million) to Romanian microfinance institution (MFI) Patria Credit, for on-lending to micro- and small enterprises (MSEs) in rural Romania.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: International Finance Corporation (IFC) Loans $20m to Agricultural Cooperative Bank of Armenia (ACBA)-Credit Agricole Bank to Increase Lending to Micro-, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs)
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, recently loaned USD 20 million to Agricultural Cooperative Bank of Armenia (ACBA)-Credit Agricole Bank to increase lending to farmers and micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the agribusiness sector.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CGAP Launches Islamic Microfinance Blog Series Featuring Finalists of Global Islamic Microfinance Challenge 2010: Al Amal of Yemen, Tanzania ecoVolunteerism, Bisma of Indonesia and Tameer, CWCD of Pakistan
The CGAP Microfinance Blog, which is operated by US-based think tank CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), is featuring a series on Islamic microfinance that profiles the winner and finalists of the Islamic Microfinance Challenge and others in an effort to engage with the broader microfinance and Islamic finance communities to find new ways to support the Islamic microfinance sector. The Islamic Microfinance Series can be found at http://microfinance.cgap.org/category/blog-series/islamic-microfinance-series/
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Dr Muhammad Yunus Appeals Bangladesh High Court Decision Upholding His Removal as Managing Director of Microfinance Institution (MFI) Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank Founder and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr Muhammad Yunus has appealed against the Bangladesh High Court’s recent ruling in favor of an attempt by the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the central bank of Bangladesh, to remove Dr Yunus from his position as managing director of Grameen Bank. [1] [2]. The Grameen Bank is a Bangladeshi microfinance institution (MFI) that manages total assets of USD 1.4 billion.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Pakistan’s National Rural Support Program (NRSP) Microfinance Bank Receives Permission to Operate as Regulated Entity
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the nation’s central banking authority, has granted a “business commencement certificate” for the nonprofit National Rural Support Program (NRSP), to operate its NRSP Microfinance Bank as a regulated microfinance institution (MFI) in all areas of Pakistan. NRSP has offered microfinance services on a self-regulated basis since 1991. In 2008, NRSP internally approved the transformation of these operations into a regulated microfinance bank, which was registered and licensed as NRSP Microfinance Bank in 2009 [2].
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Center (MFC) for Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States, Joint Stock Company Fund for Financial Support of Agriculture (FFSA) of Kazakhstan Launch “Center for Assistance to Microcredit Organizations” (CAMCO)
The Microfinance Center (MFC) for Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States, an international microfinance network based in Poland, and the Joint Stock Company Fund for Financial Support of Agriculture (FFSA), a financial services organization headquartered in Kazakhstan, recently launched the Center for Assistance to Microcredit Organizations (CAMCO) to provide technical assistance to small microfinance institutions (MFIs) in rural and urban Kazakhstan.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Provides $89m to Finance Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) Through ProCredit Bank Moldova and UniCredit Bank Serbia
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a multilateral finance institution based in London, is providing loans to banks in Serbia and Moldova in an effort to increase access to finance for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: India’s Andhra Pradesh State to Tighten Local Microfinance Institutions (Regulation of Moneylending) Act
The government of the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh reportedly is set to alter the Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Institutions (Regulation of Moneylending) Act, which was enacted December 2010 in response to complaints of high interest rates and coercive loan recovery, by replacing the term “self-help group (SHG) women” with “below poverty line (BPL) households” [1] [2]. According to unspecified sources at the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister’s Office, the purpose of the replacement is “to ensure that MFIs adhere to the existing stringent rules” by “bringing all kinds of MFI loan products, existing and future, under the purview of the Act [1].”
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: International Finance Corporation (IFC), Governments of Austria and Japan Train Bankers in Georgia to Provide Financial Services to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector investment arm of the World Bank Group, is currently training bankers in the nation of Georgia to provide financial services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). IFC is partnering with the governments of Austria and Japan to offer the three-day program covering strategy and market segmentation, product design, credit risk management and information management systems. The initiative is aimed at building self-sustaining SMEs and strategies for funding these organizations. While reportedly being major drivers of economic growth and job creation in Central and Eastern Europe, SMEs often struggle with financing the growth of their businesses.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) Lends $5m to Minsk Transit Bank of Belarus
Finance in Motion, a Frankfurt-based asset management firm focused on development finance, recently reported to MicroCapital that the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), a microfinance institution investment fund that it advises, made a debt investment of USD 5 million in Minsk Transit Bank, a joint stock company in Belarus [1].
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Beema Samiti (Insurance Board) of Nepal Forms Panel to Define Microinsurance Products
Beema Samiti (Insurance Board), the insurance regulatory authority of Nepal, recently instituted a taskforce intended to define microinsurance products and identify channels for delivering these products to rural and low income-households [1].
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Institution AccessBank of Azerbaijan Receives ‘BB+’ Rating from Fitch
Fitch Ratings, a global rating agency headquartered in New York and London, recently confirmed its ratings for AccessBank, a financial institution in Azerbaijan. AccessBank’s long-term foreign-currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) was confirmed at ‘BB+’ with ‘Outlook Stable’, its short-term IDR was confirmed at ‘B’ and its Individual Rating was confirmed at ‘D’, all of which are at the ‘sovereign ceiling’ which is generally the highest available in a given country.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to Promote Energy Efficiency Through Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Government of Bulgaria, $9.7m Loan to Moldovan Bank BCR Chisinau
In its effort to boost energy efficiency in Eastern Europe, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a development finance institution headquartered in London, recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of Bulgaria and loaned EUR 7 million (USD 9.7 million) to BCR Chisinau, a Moldovan commercial bank.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Tajikistan Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) Arvand, Bank Eskhata, FINCA Tajikistan, Oxus Microfinance Borrow $4.7m From responsAbility Social Investments of Switzerland
responsAbility Social Investments AG, an investment company based in Switzerland, recently reported to MicroCapital that it has made loans totaling USD 4.7 million to microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Tajikistan.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 14th Annual Microfinance Centre (MFC) Conference, “Reorienting Microfinance Towards Balanced Growth”, May 18 – 20, 2011, in Prague, Czech Republic
Event Name: 14th Annual Microfinance Centre (MFC) Conference, “Reorienting Microfinance Towards Balanced Growth”
Event Date: May 18 – May 20, 2011
Event Location: Prague, Czech Republic
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Crédit Agricole Serbia Accept Warehouse Receipts as Collateral for $27m in Loans to Agribusinesses
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a development finance institution headquartered in London, and Crédit Agricole Serbia, a subsidiary of financial institution Crédit Agricole of France, have recently partnered to accept warehouse receipts as collateral for loans totaling EUR 20 million (USD 27.4 million) to agribusinesses in Serbia.