by Julia Marín -

MICROCAPITAL EVENT: Financial Services for the Poor: Lessons and Implications of the Latest Research on Credit; February 27, 2015; Washington DC, USA

Event Name: Services for the Poor: Lessons and Implications of the Latest Research on Credit

Event Date: February 27, 2015

Event Location: Preston Auditorium, World Bank Headquarters, Washington DC

Cost: The event is free of charge, however advance registration is necessary.

Summary of Event: This conference will present the findings from randomized evaluations that evaluate the impacts of microfinance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Mongolia and Morocco. Attendees also will explore tools intended to increase the outreach and impact of financial services for low-income people. 

by Julia Marín -

MICROCAPITAL EVENT: Social Performance Task Force Social Investor Working Group Meeting; March 11-12, 2015; Luxembourg

Event Name: Social Investor Working Group Meeting

Event Date: March 11 – March 12, 2015

Event Location: European Investment Bank (EIB) Headquarters, Luxembourg.

Cost: The event is free of charge, however the proceedings on March 11 are only open to task force members. The sessions on March 12 are open to all investors.

Summary of Event: Conference attendees will discuss topics such as managing social risks; the “Universal Standards for Social Performance Management”; and the fourth iteration of the social performance indicators (SPI4), which have been developed by France-based network Cerise (Comité d’Echanges de Réflexion et d’Information sur les Systèmes d’Epargne-crédit).

by Ananya Tiwari -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: US Agency for International Development (USAID) to Provide $71m to Government of India for Banking, Clean Energy, Water and Sanitation

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), a government agency that provides international economic and humanitarian assistance, recently committed up to USD 71 million to the Government of India to support the country’s banking, clean energy and water and sanitation sectors.

by the MicroCapital Team -

SPECIAL REPORT: European Microfinance Week Participants: Transparency, Competition, Product-specific Rate Caps Can Lower Microloan Interest Rates

To open the two-day conference portion of European Microfinance Week, which is hosted by the 130-member, Luxembourg-based European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), panelists and attendees addressed “Balancing financial inclusion, market stability and client protection.” Narda Sotomayor, who leads the Department of Microfinance Analysis at Peru’s Superintendencia de Banca, Seguros y Administradoras Privadas de Fondos de Pensiones, stated that “MFIs [microfinance institutions] moving further down market to serve new people is risky, as this group has less financial education, less collateral. An institution’s credit portfolio can deteriorate quickly unless its lending methodology is revised as part of a dynamic process.” On the issue of increasing financial capability, she added, “We find synergies between financial education and stability. This also leads to benefits for institutions and the whole system.”

by Simon Pfanner -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: The MasterCard Foundation, Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO) Provide $6.5m to Launch Accion Africa Board Fellowship

Accion, a US-based nonprofit organization that offers services such as microenterprise loans and business training in 32 countries; The MasterCard Foundation, a Canadian nonprofit that promotes financial inclusion and education in Africa and other emerging markets; and Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch development bank, recently partnered to launch the Accion Africa Board Fellowship in an effort to promote improved corporate governance and risk management practices in financial institutions assisting people with low incomes.

by the MicroCapital Team -

SPECIAL REPORT: Rural Action Group Discusses Product Ecosystems, Marital Strife at European Microfinance Week

The Rural Outreach & Innovation Action Group of the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) met today as part of a full day of Action Group meetings at European Microfinance Week, which is being hosted in Luxembourg by e-MFP, a 130-member NGO. Michael Tarazi, a senior financial sector specialist at CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) argued against pushing lending products on new rural clients, instead proposing a multi-stage approach. For example, farmers can be offered mobile phones for free, with the promise of receiving information such as crop management suggestions via SMS (text message). Then crop buyers can purchase access to the farmers’ phones, such as to request the preparation of a wholesale load of crops from a group of the farmers at a given price. This can increase the income of the farmers, putting them in a better position to repay future loans for improvements to their processes. As Mr Tarazi put it, “Finance comes at the end; first you develop the digital ecosystem with other valued services such as information.”

by Simon Pfanner -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Mutually Reinforcing Institutions, Microcredit Summit Campaign, Freedom from Hunger Partner to Launch “Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies” in Effort to Reach 600k Filipino Women

The Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Mutually Reinforcing Institutions (CARD MRI), a group of organizations in the Philippines that includes CARD Bank; the Microcredit Summit Campaign, a US-based advocacy organization; and Freedom from Hunger, a US-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that offers financial and health protection services in 23 countries, launched the program “Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies,” which is expected to provide maternal health services to 600,000 Filipino women.

by Ananya Tiwari -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: The MasterCard Foundation Commits $25m to Expand UN Capital Development Fund’s Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P) Program

The MasterCard Foundation, a Canadian nonprofit that aims to promote youth learning and financial inclusion in Africa and other emerging markets, has partnered with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), a UN initiative to increase access to microfinance and other forms of investment capital for small businesses and individuals in developing countries, to expand the UNCDF Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P) program.

by the MicroCapital Team -

SPECIAL REPORT: Over-indebtedness, Microfinance and Environment Award, Conflict Zones at e-MFP’s European Microfinance Week

MicroCapital: Please describe one of the key issues to be covered this year at European Microfinance Week.

Christoph Pausch: The question of over-indebtedness is still the major risk for the sector, as identified in the most recent Banana Skins survey. We had a very successful plenary last year exploring the issue from a research perspective. This year, we’re taking a very different approach by bringing CEOs of leading microfinance institutions (MFIs) from three countries – Bangladesh, Morocco, and Mexico – to discuss how they’ve been dealing with the issue. Each of these countries has had a different experience, with Bangladesh having successfully averted a potential crisis by slowing market growth (as described in an excellent paper by Stuart Rutherford and Greg Chen). Morocco was one of the original “microfinance crisis” countries during 2008 and 2009, and the MFIs there have had an interesting experience in resolving the problems from that period. Finally, Mexico is a major market with serious concerns regarding over-indebtedness, and MFIs there are working to avert a potential crisis.

by Simon Pfanner -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Cape Verde Engages ADA in Adjusting Legal Framework to Encourage Microfinance

The island nation of Cape Verde, with the support of Luxembourg-based NGO ADA, which was founded in 1994 as Appui au Développement Autonome, has established a new law enabling a regulatory framework intended to be more conducive to microfinance.

by Aliz Crowley -

MICROFINANCE EVENT: ADA 20th Anniversary Academic Symposium and Exhibition, October 15-16, 2014, Neumünster Abbey Cultural Centre, Luxembourg

Event Name: ADA 20th Anniversary Academic Symposium and Exhibition

Event Date: October 15, 2014 and October 16, 2014

Event Location: Centre Culturel de Rencontre Abbaye de Neumünster, Luxembourg

by Aliz Crowley -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: US-based Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) Appoints Jeffrey Binstock as CEO

The Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), a US-based nonprofit that provides performance data and analysis on microfinance institutions (MFIs) and their funders, networks and service providers, recently announced the appointment of Mr Jeffrey Binstock as the organization’s new CEO.

by Aliz Crowley -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Pakistan-based Microfinance Institution (MFI) Wasil Foundation Wins $100k Islamic Microfinance Challenge 2014

The Wasil Foundation (Wasil), a nonprofit that aims to alleviate poverty through enterprise development in Pakistan, has won the 2014 Islamic Microfinance Challenge, a competition that promotes Sharia-compliant microfinance products, which prohibit interest payments in keeping with Islamic practices.

by Aliz Crowley -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Likely to Loan Mongolian XacBank $5m for On-lending to Micro-, Small, Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs); $10m for Sustainable Energy

The London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering disbursing a local-currency loan equivalent to USD 5 million to XacBank, a lender to micro-, small and medium-sized businesses in Mongolia.

by Ben Krupp -

MICROCAPITAL PAPER WRAP-UP: “Technical Guide: Performance and Social Indicators for Microfinance Institutions;” by Sebastian von Stauffenberg, Damian von Stauffenberg, Maritza Rodriguez, Rebecca Spradlin, Antonio Bryant; Published by MicroRate

“Technical Guide: Performance and Social Indicators for Microfinance Institutions;” by Sebastian von Stauffenberg, Damian von Stauffenberg, Maritza Rodriguez, Rebecca Spradlin and Antonio Bryant; Published by MicroRate; 2014; 64 pages; available at http://www.microrate.com/media/downloads/2014/05/MicroRate_-Technical-Guide-20142.pdf

Published by MicroRate, a US-based rating agency that evaluates risk and performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs), this guide provides an outline on how to assess the quality of an MFI.

by Nisha Koul -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) Introduces FINclusion Lab, Offering Country-Specific Financial Inclusion Data Visualization and Analysis

The Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), a US-based nonprofit, recently announced the launch of FINclusion Lab, a platform that provides interactive visual interpretation and analysis of country-specific data pertaining to financial services activities in Africa, Asia and Latin America [1].