The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Fundación Telefónica have recently presented a report on mobile communications and access to financial services in Latin America. The report is a result of a dialogue between public and private sector leaders, carried out through a series of workshops organized by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) – a division of the IDB – and Fundación Telefónica. The report analyses the level of development of mobile technologies and financial services in eight countries throughout Latin America and the Carribean. A copy of the report was still unavailable at the time of this release.
Search Results for: colombia
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International Holds First Meeting of the Steering Committee for the Campaign for Client Protection in Microfinance; International Leaders Endorse the Six Principles of Client Protection in the Meeting
In the face of client protection failures in the mainstream financial sector, the first meeting of the Steering Committee for the Campaign for Client Protection in Microfinance was hosted by the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International. The meeting was attended by members of the committee which comprises of twenty-three leaders from various microfinance organizations representing a diversity of regions, types of institutions and expertise. The purpose of the meeting was aimed at ensuring microfinance providers worldwide remain committed to serving their clients’ best interests. According to a press release on PRNewsire, the leaders attending the meeting officially endorsed the six principles of client protection in microfinance launched by the campaign at the Clinton Global Initiative in September, 2008. MicroCapital had previously reported on the official launch of the campaign; more information on the story can be found here. The press release states the meeting has a ‘sense of importance and timing’ given the current financial crisis sweeping the world and the increasing focus on interest rates and transparency.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Challenges to Regulation of Mobile Transaction Services, E-Money, and other Branchless Banking Technologies
In March 2007, when Kenyan cellphone service provider Safaricom launched its mobile payment service M-Pesa (‘M’ for mobile; ‘Pesa’ meaning money in Swahili), it predicted the service would attract 450 thousand customers by January 2008. The service caught on, and fast. When January 2008 rolled around, M-Pesa had more than doubled its goal, registering more than 1 million users in ten months. People began using M-Pesa credits to pay for everything from well water to cab fare. According to Wired magazine, almost a third of Kenya’s population now pays their electricity bills via mobile device. M-Pesa has now registered over 5 million users, and continues to register 10 thousand more each day. As discussed in this MicroCapital article, many banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs), such as Equity Bank in Kenya, have begun to adopt cellphone cash-transfer services as a way to minimize administrative costs and penetrate markets otherwise unreachable by traditional banking. Mobile transaction services, e-money, and other branchless banking technologies have also flourished in a number of developing nations beyond Kenya, most notably Brazil, India, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Russia, and Colombia. However, where the rapid growth of branchless banking has sparked the imagination of many, others’ optimism is shadowed by apprehension and concern that inadequate regulation in the nascent industry may place customers’ already vulnerable finances at risk.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Microinsurance Client Base of Allianz Life Indonesia Grows Four-fold in 2008
Microinsurance provider Allianz Life Indonesia has announced that its microinsurance client base grew 417 percent in 2008, from 42 thousand policyholders at the end of 2007 to 183.8 thousand at the end of the year. Its line of microinsurance products, dubbed “Payung Keluarga” (meaning “Family Umbrella”), generated a modest premium income of USD 82.5 thousand for the year, up 350 percent from USD 19.6 thousand in 2007. The significance is not the profit, but rather the increase in business volume. Payung Keluarga offers a range of life insurance products from basic credit life protection, which prevents microcredit borrowers from leaving debt to their family, to products that offer additional payouts to family upon the death of a breadwinner. Allianz Life Indonesia settled 76 microinsurance claims in 2008.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: International Finance Corporation (IFC), Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), & VenturEast Micro Equity Managers Private Limited (VMEM) to Launch 5 Million USD Micro Venture Capital Fund For Young Entrepreneurs
International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has joined forces with Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), an organization that focuses on “mentoring” as a technique to help young entrepreneurs in India, and venture capital firm VenturEast Micro Equity Managers Private Limited (VMEM) to set up a fund that will provide financing to young Indian business persons with growth potential but limited resources. It will target in particular India’s disadvantaged entrepreneurs between 18-35 years, who are considered too high risk for debt financing and thus require equity injections.
NEWS WIRE: Microfinance: Ready for its Big Leap?
Source: US Banker.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: A Kiva-like Internet Microfinance Brokerage “Lend-for-Peace” is Founded for Palestine
Two Jews and two Palestinians joined together at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania to launch a non-profit internet microfinance brokerage called “Lendfor Peace.org” (LFP). Like Kiva.org, LFP facilitates microloans from individuals around the world to partner microfinance institutions (MFIs) who on-loan the funds to women living in poverty that want to start small businesses. LFP, however, focuses exclusively on the Palestinian territories. During the most recent escalation of violence in Gaza, LFP cofounders released a blog explaining their common motivation in launching the microfinance support platform: “The current crisis will increase the number of people who are financially and emotionally strained and has the potential to result in echoes of desperation and violence in the future. We believe that support systems in these regions are more crucial than ever and that an infrastructure for rebuilding the economies of the affected areas will be important for the success of any accord.”
MICROCAPITAL STORY: ACCION Invests $4.2m in Two Microfinance Companies: Mauritius Based Leapfrog Investments Ltd and Swiss Based Paralife, Invests in Initiatives Aimed at Moving Microfinance ‘Beyond Credit’
ACCION International, a microfinance organization founded in 1961, has invested a total of USD 4.2 million in ParaLife, a Swiss microinsurance holding company and LeapFrog Investments, a USD 100 million microinsurance investment fund headquartered in Mauritius. In a press release found on Microfinance Gateway, Ms. Monica Baron, the principal director of ACCION’s Gateway Microfinance Innovation Fund, said that the investment by ACCION was aimed at moving microfinance ‘beyond credit’. The press release quoted Ms. Baron as saying the future of financial inclusion lay in offering the working poor a basic suite of all financial tools instead of providing only credit. In this regard, Ms. Baron mentioned that ACCION believed both ParaLife and LeapFrog Investments would be leaders for the industry, developing flexible, responsive insurance products that would meet the needs of a broad range of low income clients.
PRESS RELEASE: ACCION Invests $4.2m in Microinsurance Initiatives, Helping to Move Microfinance Beyond Credit
Source: ACCION.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: International Finance Corporation (IFC) Provides $2.1m to Corporacion Mundial de la Mujer de Medellin (WWB Medellin)
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, will provide up to COP 4 billion, approximately USD 2.1 million, to Colombia’s Corporacion Mundial de la Mujer de Medellin (WWB-Medellin) in order to support the bank’s expansion. This financing follows another loan of up to USD 2.1 million that IFC committed earlier this year to WWB Medellin.
MICROCAPITAL EVENT: Symposium: Microfinance as a Tool for Peacebuilding
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: Microfinance as a Tool for Peacebuilding
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Panel Discussion: Microfinance in the Wake of the Current Financial Crisis
THE FUTURE OF MICROFINANCE IN THE WAKE OF THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS
MICROCAPITAL STORY: BBVA Microfinance Foundation and Bancredito Promote Microfinance Initiatives in Costa Rica
BBVA Microfinance Foundation, the microfinance arm of BBVA Group, a multinational financial services group, and BanCredito, the state owned bank formerly known as Cartago Agricultural Credit Bank, have signed a collaboration agreement for an undisclosed amount to promote initiatives that would make credit and other financial products accessible to the most disadvantaged sectors of Costa Rica’s population and others in Central America. “This alliance will result in important benefits for the development of Costa Rica’s microfinance sector, as both of our entities share common objectives: allow people who currently don’t have access to the traditional financial system to be able to establish small production activities that would help them improve their quality of life and that of their families in a sustainable manner,” BBVA’s Mendez del Rio said.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: MicroRate Publishes Public Ratings of Microfinance Institutions Conducted Between January and September 2008
Forprofit microfinance rating company MicroRate has announced the completion of the following public microfinance institution ratings between January 2008 and September 2008:
PRESS RELEASE: Nicaragua: Banex Gives More Opportunities
Source: Banex.
MICROCAPITAL EVENT: LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN REGIONAL MICROCREDIT SUMMIT OF 2009
JUNE 8-10, 2009, CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
The Microcredit Summit Campaign (MSC), a U.S.-based microcredit social movement, and Banca de las Oportunidades, a government-run development bank in Colombia, have co-sponsored the Latin America and Caribbean Regional Microcredit Summit to be held from June 8 to 10, 2009 in Cartagena, Colombia. The summit is intended to provide an opportunity for microfinance practitioners to discuss technological and structural innovation, to share best practices and to network. Prominent speakers will include President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank.
NEWS WIRE: Paraguay: Andean Countries Boast Best Business Climate for Microfinance, According to Microscope Index
Source: Inter-American Development Bank.
GUEST EDITORIAL: Ties to Capital Markets Challenge Microfinance Institutions
Once relatively insulated from the world’s financial system, the microfinance industry is finding itself more closely tied to the capital markets than ever before. As a result, it is far from being immune to the current financial crisis, and some microfinance institutions (MFIs) are beginning to see their cost of borrowing go up as a consequence of the global credit crunch.