Forbes, a American business and financial news magazine, presented the list of top 50 microfinance institutions (MFIs) of 2007 in its special feature on the private investment in the microfinance industry.
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PRESS RELEASE: Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX) Releases Second Annual “MIX Global 100: Rankings of Microfinance Institutions”
Source: Microfinance Information eXchange.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: European Investment Bank (EIB) Supports Tunisian Microfinance with EUR 2 million Loan to ENDA Inter-Arabe
In a recent press release, the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP), a division of the European Investment Bank (EIB) dedicated to the economic development of nine Mediterranean countries1, announced that it granted a long-term loan of TND 3.6 million (EUR 2 million/USD 2.9 million) to ENDA Inter-Arabe, a Tunisian microfinance institution (MFI). Based on an earlier MicroCapital report in July 2006, this marks EIB’s second loan to ENDA, and will be used to generate micro-loans and stimulate local investment.
WHO’S WHO IN MICROFINANCE: Dr. Jennifer Riria
In the microfinance industry, Dr. Jennifer Riria is internationally known first, as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT), the largest microfinance institution (MFI) in Kenya, and second, as a board member of Women’s World Banking, a global microfinance network consisting of over 53 MFIs from 30 countries.
PRESS RELEASE: Grameen Foundation Engineers More Than $100m in Local Currency Financing
Growth Guarantee Program Secures Local Currency Loans and Spares Microfinance Institutions Foreign Exchange Risk
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.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Enda Inter-Arabe, the Tunisian Microfinance Institution Becomes the Latest Network Member to Join Women’s World Banking
Enda Inter-Arabe (Enda I-A), the first and largest microfinance institution (MFI) in Tunisia has joined Women’s World Banking (WWB), a US non-profit organization that works with 53 MFIs and banks in 29 countries worldwide. Tunisia is the third Arab country, after Jordan and Morocco, to be represented in the WWB network as part of their planned expansion into the Middle East.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Citi Foundation and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Announce 2007 Micro-entrepreneurship Awards Program in Pakistan to Highlight Microfinance
The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), a Pakistani organization dedicated to assisting poor and rural communities in Pakistan, and Citi Foundation, a philanthropic outreach arm of Citigroup, announced they will hold for the third consecutive year an awards program dedicated to micro-entrepreneurship. The program, “Citi-PPAF Microentrepreneurship Awards Programme 2007,” will recognize the efforts made by micro-entrepreneurs to improve the quality of life for their families and their communities. It is designed to demonstrate the impact of microfinance on micro-entrepreneurs and poverty reduction.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Swiss ResponsAbility Microfinanz-Fonds Begins Microfinance Investing and Loans USD 500,000 and USD 344,456 Respectively to PRESTANIC in Latin America and Al Karama in Middle East
This story comes courtesy of the latest issue of the Microfinance Capital Markets Newsletter of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the MIX, the microfinance information clearinghouse. The responsAbility Microfinanz-Fonds, a microfinance investment vehicle launched this month, has begun its investment business with two loans of USD 500,000 and USD 344,456 to microfinance institutions (MFIs) PRESTANIC and the Association Al Karama de Micro Credit (Al Karama), respectively. Microfinanz-Fonds is managed by responsAbility Social Investment Services Ltd., a Swiss investment firm founded in 2003 specializing in social investment in the developing world. Now the third microfinance investment fund managed by responsAbility, Microfinanz-Fonds has a loan investment portfolio of USD 27.0 million. The fund’s portfolio is financed by its shareholders, Bank im Bistum Essen, a German cooperative financial institution, and Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf, a German bank.
PAPER WRAP-UP: Microfinance: An Emerging Asset Class for Equity and Debt Investors, by Marco Coppoolse
By Marco Coppoolse. A White Paper Published by Microcapital in August 2007. 10 pages. Available at www.microcapital.org/downloads/whitepapers/Emerging.pdf
Mr Coppoolse supports the nascent microfinance asset class in two ways with his whitepaper, which was published by MicroCapital today. First he shows the strength and potential of the sector with some innovative research on nine of the leading MFIs (microfinance institutions) in the world. In the process he introduces a new performance indicator, “comparable return on equity” (CRoE) to be used alongside current indicators to help advise potential equity and debt investors on their microfinance investment decisions.
The conclusions are that the industry show high growth and high returns on a global basis, is still underleveraged, has high expense ratios, has good asset quality and has returns of a global nature that show no geographic bias.
PRESS RELEASE: Global Microfinance Leader PlaNet Finance Opens First U.S. Office in New York City
NEW YORK, May 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — PlaNet Finance, an international non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating poverty throughout the world through the development of microfinance, announced today the opening of its first U.S. office, in New York City.
Since its founding nine years ago in Paris, PlaNet Finance has grown to work in 60 countries including Madagascar, Mexico, Argentina, Israel, Mexico, Brazil, Senegal and China.
Association Al Karama de Micro Credit Receives $155, 700 Loan from the ResponsAbility Global Microfinance Fund
Another deal coming to us courtesy of the CGAP-MIX MCM Newsletter, the Morocco based Association Al Karama de Micro Credit, received a USD 155, 700 loan from responsAbility Global Microfinance Fund. Creates in 1999, Al Karma mission is to help fight poverty by providing financial services to micro-enterprises. According to the MIX Market, the microfinance clearing house, as of December 31st 2006, its gross loan portfolio equaled USD 1,741,806 and its total assets were USD 2,140,920. Its debt to equity ratio was 3.96%, and as of December 2006, Al Karama had 8,071 active borrowers.
Moroccan Attijariwafa Bank Provides USD 2.7 Million Loan to Moroccan Microfinance Institution FONDEP
FONDEP, a microfinance institution (MFI) based in Morocco recently received USD 2.7 million in local currency funding from Attijariwafa Bank, a local bank. The deal was engineered by the Grameen-Jameel Initiative, which provided a USD 888,000 guarantee on the loan.
PRESS RELEASE: Deutsche Bank Examines the Attractiveness of Microfinance for Private Sector Investors
Source: Deutsche Bank.
Original press release available here.
Paris-Based Société Générale Continues Wholesale Microfinance Activity With an Eye on Equity Investments
Headquartered in Paris, the Société Générale Group is the 7th largest French company by market capitalization and employs over 100,000 employees in 76 countries worldwide. The organization has three core business areas: retail banking and financial services, global investment management, and corporate investment banking. At the end of 2005, Société Générale reported nearly EUR 400 billion under asset management.
Currently, Société Générale (SG) is engaged in the microfinance sector through wholesale lending (p.64) in
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