Fremont Bank Makes $500,000 Microfinance Investment in Opportunity International Loan Guarantee Fund

California based Fremont Bank recently loaned Opportunity International $500,000 for a Loan Guarantee Fund. Fremont Bank was founded in 1964 as a full financial services commercial bank, and as of August 2005, had assets exceeding $1.6 billion.

Opportunity International, a transnational microfinance wholesale network with headquarters in Chicago, began providing loans to microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 1992. Fremont Bank’s loan to Opportunity’s Loan Guarantee Fund backs loans to MFIs within Opportunity’s wholesale network across 27 countries throughout the world, but primarily in the Philippines and Eastern Europe. At the end of 2004, Opportunity had a $120 million loan portfolio held among its 48 partner NGOs that have a total of 675,500 clients.

1) “Fremont Bank.”
2) “CoreTrac: Another California Community Bank Chooses CoreTrac.”
3) MicroCapital Blog: “Microfinance Networks (wholesale transnational): Defined and Listed.”
4) “Opportunity International: History.”
5) “2004 Annual Report Opportunity International.”
6) “Opportunity International Network.”
7) “Fremont Bank Takes Community Lending to the World.”

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