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Oikocredit, a Cooperative Investment Society based in the Netherlands, has decided at its Annual General Meeting to issue shares not only in the USD and the Euro, as they currently do, but also to expand to include other currencies as well. To start, shares will be issued in Sweden and in the United Kingdom to attract investors from those countries. In time, however, the organization hopes to also include currencies such as the South African Rand and the Indian Rupee, yielding an improved currency match for Oikocredit.

Continue reading “MICROCAPITAL STORY: Oikocredit Issues Shares in Local Currencies to Facilitate Microfinance in those Countries”

By T.S. Anand Kumar and Jeyanth K. Newport, published by Indian Association for Savings and Credit (IASC), 2007, 18 pages, download here.

This paper explores the possibilities for Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) interested in expanding into the housing sector, focusing on the Indian case for three reasons: demand for rural housing loans is high; many government programs in this area have fallen flat; and MFIs in the region are as yet ineffective in meeting this high demand. The paper begins with an overview of housing microfinance, writing that most success by financial institutions in this field is generated by home improvement loans, while financial services have failed to adequately address land purchase and new housing construction, both of which are still dominated by subsidies.

Continue reading “PAPER-WRAP UP: "Microfinance and Rural Housing," by T.S. Anand Kumar and Jeyanth K. Newport”

A microcredit program created by Thailand‘s ‘Mr. Condom’ allows the HIV positive to start businesses and earn a living.

(Fortune Magazine) — When Narisara Panya’s husband died of AIDS seven years ago after returning to Thailand from a construction job abroad, it was devastating. With only a small plot of land that didn’t always yield enough food for their two children, 44-year-old Narisara – who became HIV positive herself – needed an income.

HYDERABAD: India’s microfinance, which is perhaps the ruling flavour of private equity players, is actually turning out to be a distribution highway for a variety of goods and services given the huge outreach of over one million customers each that large entities like Share, SKS, Basix and Spandana have managed to create.

Fuelled by private equity investment and expansion, many of these entities are looking at reaching as many as five million people each in the near term. While the creation of reach has been purely for their own businesses of vending micro-loans, it now transpires that their channel could be widely used, and profitably too, for peddling insurance, money transfer, procurement and supply chain financing for agri and allied activities.

Dr. Nachiket Mor, Deputy Manager Director of the India-based ICICI Bank, has started IntelleCash, a microfinance training, investment, and banking program. IntelleCash seeks to help entrepreneurs construct microfinance institutions (MFIs). Dr. Mor of ICICI Bank was joined in a partnership by Indian businesses Aavishkaar Goodwell, a for-profit business development firm, Intellectual Capital Advisory Services (Intellecap), a social investment banking company, and the largest MFI of North India, CASHPOR. The IntelleCash program includes specific services for entrepreneurs for which each member of the IntelleCash partnership applies their expertise.Continue reading “MICROCAPITAL STORY: Microbank in a Box? Partnership Formed by Intellecap, CASHPOR, Aavishkaar Goodwell, and ICICI Bank Develops IntelleCash Microfinance Franchise Package”