Event Name: Mobile Money Global Summit and Expo, 2011
Event Date: October 31 – November 3, 2011
Event Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Event Name: Mobile Money Global Summit and Expo, 2011
Event Date: October 31 – November 3, 2011
Event Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
responsAbility Social Investments AG (responsAbility), a Swiss asset management company that manages four microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs), recently reported to MicroCapital that it made local-currency loans equivalent to the following amounts through its MIVs: USD 2 million to ProCredit Ecuador; USD 2.97 million to ProCredit Mexico; USD 2.05 million to Financiera Confianza and USD 3.5 million to Edpyme Crear Arequipa, the last two of which are microfinance institutions (MFIs) located in Peru.
Event Name: MFTransparency Uganda Data Launch
Event Date: July 27, 2011, 10:00 am Eastern US Time EDT/5:00 pm Uganda time
Event Location: Online
responsAbility Social Investments AG, a Swiss investment company that manages four microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs), recently reported to MicroCapital that it has made debt investments worth the equivalent of USD 27.4 million in NBD Bank, a commercial bank in Russia, and three microfinance institutions (MFIs): Microcredit Foundation Prizma of Bosnia and Herzegovina; FINCA Russia; and Forus Bank, also of Russia.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, and the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF), a regional organization that supports economic development in the Arab world, recently launched the Arab Secured Transactions Initiative to encourage lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Grameen Foundation, a US-based nonprofit, has announced that “Asociacion Benefica Prisma”, a Peru-based microfinance institution (MFI), has become the first fully certified user of the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI) [1].
Al Amal Bank, a microfinance bank in Yemen, will be awarded USD 104,000 for winning the Islamic Microfinance Challenge 2010, a contest that promotes the design of Shariah-compliant products for Islamic microfinance clients. Al Amal’s proposal for the competition was to test-run an Islamic leasing product, funding the pilot through its Islamic investment product and achieving operational and financial sustainability by 2012.
Byblos Bank, a Lebanese institution with operations in nine countries, has cited an unspecified report from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) as arguing that the continued growth of the microfinance sector in Lebanon is hindered by inappropriate governmental regulation and a lack of reliable data on borrowers.
Islamic Microfinance Network (IMFN) has recently launched in Pakistan with the aim to provide a common platform for Islamic microfinance institutions (MFIs) around the world. Headquartered in Lahore, the network is also looking to establish regional offices in Ghana, Mauritius and the Middle East.
MFTransparency, a US-based nongovernmental watchdog that focuses on interest rates in the microfinance industry, recently expanded its Transparent Pricing Initiative to Rwanda to educate citizens in that country on interest rates in an effort to impel microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the country to lower microfinance interest rates. Plans for this expansion were announced on this website in October.
Grameen Foundation, a US-based nonprofit; Grameen Capital India, a Mumbai-based social business that promotes growth in the microfinance sector in India; and Grameen-Jameel, a joint venture founded in 2007 by the Grameen Foundation and Grow Well Limited of Saudi Arabia, have launched a new initiative to address the liquidity needs of Indian microfinance institutions (MFIs) that demonstrate a focus on social as well as financial returns.
Event Name: Conference: Transparent Pricing Initiative in Bolivia
Event Date: December 2, 2010 (date has been revised)
Event Location: Radisson Plaza Hotel, La Paz, Bolivia
Grameen-Jameel, a joint venture founded in 2007 by the US-based Grameen Foundation and Grow Well Limited of Saudi Arabia, announced that it will provide technical assistance and financial support amounting to USD 5.2 million to Turkish microfinance institutions (MFIs) Turkish Grameen Microcredit Program (TGMP) and Maya Enterprise for Microfinance.
Event Name: Microfinance Transparency’s (MFTransparency’s) Transparent Pricing Initiative in Colombia
Event Date: September 1 and September 2, 2010
Event Name: Transparent Pricing Initiative in Malawi
Event Date: August 31, 2010
CHF International, a US-based international development and humanitarian assistance non-profit organization, has set up a private holding company, CHF Finance Group, to house its commercial microfinance institution (MFI) subsidiaries.
CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), a policy and research center; Deutsche Bank, a European commercial bank with a microfinance program; Grameen-Jameel, a company that provides support to microfinance institutions (MFIs); and the Islamic Development Bank, an international finance institution, recently announced the Islamic Microfinance Challenge, a contest intended to promote the innovative design of Shariah-compliant products for Islamic microfinance clients.