The LeapFrog Financial Inclusion Fund recently announced that it has raised USD 44 million. This was reported on several news portals including Bloomberg, the Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire, the Press Portal website and CNBC. The fund has been billed as the world’s first investment fund that is focused on microinsurance. The fund aims to invest in or partner with businesses that offer insurance products and financial services to low-income communities throughout Africa and Asia, including India, Pakistan, South Africa and Uganda.
Search Results for: triodos
CGAP Microfinance Dealbook: May 2009 Transactions
The CGAP Microfinance Dealbook publicizes microfinance capital market transactions in an effort to bring greater transparency to the industry. This information is made freely available as a public service. Parties to microfinance transactions are encouraged to submit their deals to this effort. The following deals were collected for May 2009:
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Bellwether Microfinance Fund Invests $480K in Equitas Micro Finance India
In May 2009, Bellwether Microfinance Fund, a private equity fund based in Hyderabad, India, reported a USD 479,600 equity investment in Equitas Micro Finance India, a Chennai based microfinance institution (MFI), to the CGAP Microfinance Dealbook, the monthly report on microfinance market transactions. The deal was denominated in local currency. MicroCapital has reported on a May 2009 USD 3.7 million investment by MicroVentures in Equitas as well as a securitization worth USD 3.0 million in March 2009.
CGAP Microfinance Dealbook: April 2009 Transactions
The CGAP Microfinance Dealbook publicizes microfinance capital market transactions in an effort to bring greater transparency to the industry. This information is made freely available as a public service. Parties to microfinance transactions are encouraged to submit their deals to this effort. The following deals were collected for April 2009:
MICROCAPITAL STORY: European Development Finance Institutions Part 3: The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) Invests Over USD 160 million in Microfinance in Last Two Years
The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), founded by the Dutch government in 1970 to support the private sector in developing countries, invests in microfinance as a way to stimulate sustainable economic growth. Between January 2007 and March 2009, FMO has invested at least USD 160 million in microfinance services around the world.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: K-Rep Bank of Kenya Receives $2.2m Microfinance Investment from the African Development Bank (AfDB)
K-Rep Bank, a commercial bank that directly targets low income clients in Kenya, received a Kshs 174.8 million (USD 2.2 million) investment from the African Development Bank (AfDB) during May 2009. This financial support will also include technical assistance related to capacity building. K-Rep Bank provides various banking services and specializes in loans to low income, small and micro entrepreneurs. K-rep plans to create 10,000 new jobs by 2011 of which 55 percent would involve women entrepreneurs.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: International Finance Corporation (IFC) Worldwide Microfinance Investment Deals March and April 2009 of $51m and EURO 7m
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, provides investments and advisory services to build the private sector in developing countries. It made the following microfinance investment deals in March and April 2009 of USD 51m and EURO 7m.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Kenya’s K-Rep Bank Brings in New Manager as a Response to $4.4m Loss in 2008
K-Rep Bank, a Kenyan commercial bank that targets the microfinance sector, appointed Gerard Monteiro as the new Chief Operations Advisor after reporting a Sh 349 million (USD 4.4 million) loss for 2008. It is hoped that Mr. Monteiro, a 33-year veteran of the banking and microfinance sectors, will help to reverse the five-year low-profitability trend K-Rep Bank has faced.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Global Alliance for Banking on Values Launched in The Netherlands; Eleven Banks Join to Form the Alliance
Eleven banks have joined to form a new alliance called The Global Alliance for Banking on Values in a move to build a positive alternative to the current crisis in the global financial system. According to a press release on the Netherlands based Triodos Bank’s website, this new partnership plans to develop new ways of building organizations better suited to long-term sustainable thinking and also to develop new forms of ownership and economic cooperation. The alliance was launched at an event held in The Netherlands from March 2-4, 2009. The event was also attended by Her Royal Highness Princess Máxima of The Netherlands, a former banker and former member of the United Nations Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors, and Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program. The eleven member alliance was founded by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) Bank based in Bangladesh, ShoreBank Corporation the United States based community development and environment bank and Triodos Bank in The Netherlands. Other member banks of the alliance include Alternative Bank ABS in Switzerland, Banca Popolare Etica in Italy, Banex, Banco del Exito in Nicaragua, the GLS Bank in Germany, Mekur Bank in Denmark, Mibanco, Banco de la Microempresa in Peru, New Resource Bank in the United States and the XacBank in Mongolia.
NEWS WIRE: Over 80 percent of Investors have not Reduced their Microfinance Investment Portfolio Due to the Global Recession
Source: Microfinance Insights .
NEWS WIRE: Pakistan: The Case of Microfinance in the Post Crisis World
Source: The Nation.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: BRAC of Bangladesh Launches $62m East Africa Microfinance Fund
Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), an International Development Organization founded in Bangladesh announced the launch of the BRAC Africa Loan Fund to provide microfinance loans to poor borrowers in Tanzania, Uganda and Southern Sudan. In a press release found on PRNewswire, BRAC announced that it has raised USD 62.6 million of capital towards the loan fund. The release stated that the Africa Loan Fund would provide long-term, local currency funding that would enable BRAC to scale up its microfinance operations to reach over 700,000 borrowers through over 200 branches across the three East African countries.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Thirty-Five Organizations Sign Client Protection Principles to Ensure Fair Treatment and Financial Protection of Low-Income Microfinance Clients
In late October, 35 microfinance institutions (MFIs) and investment funds signed the Client Protection Principles (CPP), a list of pro-consumer principles and mandates that aims to become an industry-wide standard for ensuring the fair treatment and financial protection of low-income microfinance clients. The CPP are part of a larger campaign launched in September of 2008 at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, a conglomeration of governments and public and private organizations dedicated to sustainable development, with the goal of incorporating at least half of the world’s 500 largest MFIs within the next three years. According to Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), there is little evidence of client abuse in the microfinance sector.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Microfinance Institution ACCION International Launches New Hub in Africa
ACCION International, a microfinance organization founded in 1961, launched a new hub office and training center in Accra, Ghana, with the aim to expand financial services for Africa’s poorest populations. The new center will offer support to East and West African microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the form of education and training to increase capacity. According to the press release, ACCION’s goals are to train 3,000 microfinance practitioners in such disciplines as business planning, risk management, lending and governance; all through its training center network.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: FMO Invests $10 Million in Sri Lankan LOLC Micro Finance Company
Sri Lankan company Lanka ORIX Leasing Company PLC (LOLC) will launch LOLC Micro Finance Company (LOLC MF) with a USD 10 million loan and equity injection from the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO). FMO is investing USD 2 million in equity, USD 1.5 million as a convertible loan and USD 6.5 million as a senior loan. FMO will own 20 percent of LOLC MF. This will be the first Sri Lankan microfinance institution (MFI) to have foreign shareholding. LOLC MF already has a Rs 2.3 billion (USD 21.2 million) loan portfolio which has a non-performing loan ratio on a portfolio-of-risk basis of around 5 percent.
PRESS RELEASE: Nicaragua: Banex Gives More Opportunities
Source: Banex.
NEWS WIRE: Microfinance Investor Institutions Signed on to the Client Protection Principles
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Pilot Project Koshi Yomuti to Become Namibia’s First Microfinance Bank with Funds from GTZ, FIDES, Incofin, Swiss Microfinance Holding and Investisseur et Partenaire Pour le Development
Koshi Yomuti, a six year old microfinance project whose name means “banking under a tree” will become Namibia’s first commercial micro finance bank with seed capital of Euro 2.3 million from the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), a federally owned international cooperation enterprise based outside of Frankfurt, Germany. The grant money will be used to create the first purely micro finance banking institution in Namibia upgrading the Koshi Yomuti/Ohangwena Pilot Project to a commercial microfinance bank. The bank will be owned by foreign investors, including KfW (on behalf of GTZ), FIDES (Switzerland), Swiss Microfinance Holding (Switzerland), Incofin (Belgium), and Investisseur et Partenaire pour le Development (France).