by Mary Fu -

MICROCAPITAL STORY: International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC Co-Arrange USD 40 Million for Mibanco in First International Syndication in Latin American Microfinance

International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC, a subsidiary of Wachovia Corporation, have co-arranged a USD 40 million syndicated financing agreement for Mibanco (Banco de la Microempresa S.A.), a leading private commercial microfinance bank in Peru. As the first international syndication for a microfinance institution in Latin America, this transaction will allow Mibanco to offer longer loan maturities to its clients, as well as reach more rural customers.

by Steven Craig -

MICROCAPITAL SPECIAL FEATURE: 2007 Equity Investments in Small and Medium Sized Microbanks, Part 3 of 3

December 10, MicroCapital.org featured Part 2 of a series on 2007 Equity Investments in Small and Medium Sized Microbanks. Previously, detailed information was provided on institutions with less than USD 100 million in assets. Here, in Part 3, we provide detailed financial and outreach information on microbanks with total assets greater than USD 100 million and less than USD 200 million. The institutions are presented in ascending order based on asset size.

by Amy Rennison -

MICROCAPITAL FEATURE: Marilou van Golstein Brouwers, Managing Director of Triodos Investment Management B.V., Talks to MicroCapital

“I really enjoy my job still after fifteen years,” says Marilou van Golstein Brouwers, the head of the Triodos division that runs its microfinance investments. She has been with the company since they began investing in microfinance, which was at first tried as means to promote sustainable development. “You have to tackle the divide between rich and poor if you are serious about sustainability,” she says.

by Steven Craig -

MICROCAPITAL SPECIAL FEATURE: 2007 Equity Investments in Small and Medium Sized Microbanks, Part 2 of 3

On December 5, MicroCapital.org featured Part 1 of a series on 2007 Equity Investments in Small and Medium Sized Microbanks. Here, in Part 2, we provide detailed financial and outreach information on microbank’s with total assets under USD 100 million. The institutions are presented in ascending order based on asset size.

by Elizabeth Nelson -

MICROCAPITAL STORY: Global Non-profit Microfinance Network Opportunity International Launches Microschools for Opportunity

Opportunity International, a Christian microfinance organization, has announced the expansion of its microfinance school loans program “Microschools for Opportunity.” “Microschools” provides loans to “edupreneurs” who open schools in poor neighborhoods where children, especially girls, would otherwise be unable to access public education. As of June 2007, the Opportunity International Network had over one million active clients globally and a loan portfolio of USD 450.2 million. As of December 2006, the organization had USD 31.7 million in total assets and USD 534,000 in total liabilities.

by Mary Fu -

PAPER WRAP-UP: Microfinance in Northeast Thailand: Who Benefits and How Much?, by Brett E.Coleman

By Brett E. Coleman, published by World Development, Vol. 34, No. 9, September 2006, 27 pages, available by subscription through Science Direct: doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2006.01.006.

This paper examines the results of a survey of two Northeast Thailand “village bank” programs that target the poor, and is an extension of a previous paper written by Coleman in 1999, entitled “The Impact of Group Lending in Northeast Thailand”*. It extends the same methodology employed in the first to include more in-depth analyses on outreach success and differential impact on two types of village bank members. Coleman concludes that the programs surveyed were not reaching the poor as much as the relatively wealthy, and that the estimated impacts on wealthier committee members were significantly more positive than on poorer rank-and-file members.

by Amy Rennison -

MICROFINANCE EVENT: PlaNet Finance and the American Conference Institute to Host the Global Microfinance Investment Congress 2008

GLOBAL MICROFINANCE INVESTMENT CONGRESS 2008

MAY 14-16, NEW YORK CITY, USA

Planet Finance, the French non-profit company that assists microfinance institutions (MFIs), and conference organiser, the American Conference Institute are hosting a three-day event on investing in microfinance. Called the Global Microfinance Investment Congress, the event convenes Microfinance Investment Vehicles (MIVs), Commercial Banks, Insurance Companies, Government Authorities and MFIs to discuss the future of the projected USD 250 Billion microfinance industry. This is the second event in a series, the first of which will be held in Paris on 21-22 January 2008, as reported by MicroCapital.

by Amy Rennison -

MICROCAPITAL STORY: MicroCapital talks to Shari Berenbach, Executive Director of the Calvert Foundation, About the Foundation’s Relationship with MicroPlace and how it Became the First Issuer to Sell Investments on the Site

The Calvert Foundation has always been at the cutting edge of social community investing, so it was no surprise to find out that it was the first issuer to market securities on the new retail microfinance web-brokerage service owned by eBay, MicroPlace. Through MicroPlace it is marketing 15 microfinance institutions to which everyday investors can make loans by investing in Calvert Community Investment Notes.

by Mary Fu -

MICROCAPITAL STORY: ACCION Gateway Microfinance Investment Vehicles Fund (GMIV) Invests in Lok Capital, AfriCap

ACCION International’s Gateway Microfinance Investment Vehicles Fund (GMIV) invested in Lok Capital, raising its total resources from USD 12 million to USD 14.5 million, and participated in the recapitalization of AfriCap Microfinance Investment Company, helping raise its total capital from USD 14 million to USD 50 million in its second round of investment.

by Steven Craig -

MICROCAPITAL STORY: Mifos, a Freely Available Open-source Management Information System for Microfinance Institutions

The New York Times recently published an article highlighting the Mifos Initiative; a microfinance-focused open-source software development community that is addressing the growing information management needs of microfinance institutions (MFIs) by engineering and distributing a freely available management information system (MIS). Their product, called Mifos, provides functionality that helps MFIs run efficiently and achieve scale in respect to data collection and management. MicroCapital first covered the Mifos framework in July 2005 while it was being developed in conjunction with a pilot credit bureau project in Morocco.

by Elizabeth Nelson -

MICROCAPITAL STORY: Non-profit Microfinance Organization Grameen Foundation Announces New Chair of Board of Directors

The Grameen Foundation, a global non-profit organization that works to replicate the Grameen Bank microfinance model, has announced the election of Paul Maritz as chair of its board of directors. Mr. Maritz will replace Susan M. Davis, who will remain on the board after serving as chair for six and a half years. This is Grameen’s fourth chair of the board since its founding in 1997. Prior to Ms. Davis, Reed Oppenheimer and James F. Sams held the position.

by Steven Craig -

WHO’S WHO IN MICROFINANCE: The Dignity Fund, L.P.

The Dignity Fund, a private partnership founded in 2005, brings capital to the microfinance industry in an effort to advance the upward mobility of the poor. The Dignity Fund seeks to increase the number of poor households with access to credit, savings and other financial services by providing debt financing to microfinance institutions (MFIs).