Symbiotics, a Switzerland-based manager of international investments in small business, recently issued a four-year loan of LKR 1.42 billion (USD 7.75 million) to Sri Lanka’s Pan Asia Banking Corporation for on-lending to projects with reduced effects on the environment in sectors such as energy and agriculture. Symbiotics raised the money through an issue of “green” bonds. Of the bond buyers,
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MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Erste Bank Serbia Opens $45m Credit Line from EBRD to Increase Financing to SMEs
The UK-headquartered European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) recently issued a loan to the Serbian unit of Austria-based Erste Group Bank in the amount of EUR 40 million (USD 45 million) with the aim of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Serbia. As of year-end 2018
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Charting the Customer Journey in the Digital Age,” Published by CFI
By Pablo Anton-Diaz and Amin Khairy, published by the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) at Accion, May 2019, 15 pages, available at https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/charting-the-customer-journey-in-the-digital-age
This report focuses on how financial institutions can “create effective digital customer journeys for underserved clients.” The authors identify the following stages of such journeys: 1) “the pre-purchase stage,” in which customers select the financial product
MICROFINANCE EVENT: MFC Annual Conference: “Demystifying Digital in Microfinance;” May 30 – 31, 2019; Istanbul, Turkey
The 22nd annual conference of the Poland-based nonprofit Microfinance Center (MFC) will focus on challenges and trends relating to digitalization in financial inclusion. In addition to traditional conference sessions, the event will include a Social Investors Fair and a Fintech Marketplace. Sample workshop topics include Responsible Digital Financial Services; Fintechs [Financial Technology Firms] and Financial Inclusion in Turkey and Beyond; and EU Funding for Microfinance. Pre- and post-conference events include
SPECIAL REPORT: Matching Rules of Thumb with Clients in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Financial Education at EMW
Today 
at European Microfinance Week (EMW), Ewa Bankowska of the Microfinance Centre (MFC), a Poland-based network of approximately 100 microfinance institutions (MFIs), described her organization’s response to lackluster results from the financial education it has delivered to 200,000 people in 22 countries over 15 years.
Evidence suggests that changes in financial behavior are more likely when learners are given simple “rules of thumb,” such as putting a euro in a jar after every shopping trip. Based on this idea, MFC is developing a system to determine which rules of thumb should be suggested to which clients. The organization has drafted an online tool with 13 questions that categorize users into one of four categories. Based on the person’s category, she is given a
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EFSE Invests $9m in Kredobank Bond Issue for Small, Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Lending in Ukraine
The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), a Luxembourg-domiciled microfinance investment vehicle, recently invested UAH 312 million (USD 11 million) in Public Joint Stock Company (PJSC) Kredobank, a Ukrainian bank owned by the Polish financial services firm, Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosci (PKO) Bank Polski Spolka Akcyjna.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Microfinance Centre-European Microfinance Network (MFC-EMN) Annual Conference; October 3-5, 2018; Bilbao, Spain
Co-hosted by the Poland-based Microfinance Centre (MFC) and the Belgium-based European Microfinance Network (EMN), this event’s theme for 2018 is “People and the Digital Revolution: Advancing Our Social Mission through Technology.” Although the agenda of conference is still in development, it will include
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MetLife Foundation Donates $5.4m to Accion to Boost Microfinance Customer Capabilities in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Myanmar
MetLife Foundation, the philanthropic unit of US-based insurer MetLife, recently agreed to donate USD 5.4 million to US-based microfinance NGO Accion for an effort called Building Financial Capabilities and Strengthening Institutions through Customer-Centered Innovations. The project includes: (1) partnering with the Microfinance Centre, a Poland-based nonprofit network, to create and share tools for financial service providers to use in identifying and addressing client barriers to “financial well-being;” (2) identifying and partnering with six financial institutions in
SPECIAL REPORT: Scaling Up Implementation of Social Performance Management at European Microfinance Week
On 
the first day of conference sessions at European Microfinance Week, experts in the social performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) discussed how tools developed over the last ten years have reached a level of maturity warranting their wider rollout.
Cecile Lapenu of France-based Cerise described SPI4, the fourth iteration of a set of Social Performance Indicators intended to simplify reporting and provide a common language for different stakeholders to discuss social performance management (SPM). SPI4 incorporates the Smart Campaign’s Client Protection Principles and the Social Performance Task Force’s Universal Standards for SPM. It also includes optional modules on poverty, gender and the environment. To date, 432 SPI4 audits have been completed on institutions in 88 countries.
Jurgen Hammer of the Luxembourg-based Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation explained his organization’s use of the SPI4/ALINUS (Aligning Investors’ Due Diligence to the Universal Standards) framework to evaluate and benchmark the social performance of its partner MFIs. The foundation was meeting or exceeding the benchmark data in all categories except
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EBRD Lending Local Currency Worth $20m to OTP Leasing of the Ukraine
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based multilateral development institution, recently announced it has provided a loan
MICROFINANCE EVENT: “Horizon 2037: Fair Finance for All” – 20th Microfinance Centre (MFC) Annual Conference; May 24-26, 2017; Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Event Name: “Horizon 2037: Fair Finance for All” – 20th Microfinance Centre (MFC) Annual Conference
Event Date: May 24 – May 26, 2017
Event Location: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Controversy Brews as For-Profit Fintech Provider MyBucks Buys 6 African Microfinance Organizations from Nonprofit Opportunity International
The sale of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda over the first half of 2016 by US-based NGO Opportunity International to Luxembourg-based financial technology company MyBucks has raised concerns both that these MFIs’ clients could be negatively impacted and that these transactions signal that the sector’s overall direction has shifted toward profit-making.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Kreditech Raises $104m from Amadeus, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Peter Thiel, Previous Investors for Monedo Online Lending Platform
Kreditech, a German financial technology company, recently announced that it raised EUR 10 million (USD 11.2 million) as part of its Series C funding round from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the US-based World Bank Group, to invest mainly in its Monedo platform, which provides on-line banking products to consumers in both emerging and developed markets.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Albanian Microfinance Association to Host 19th MFC Annual Conference; June 23 – 24, 2016; Tirana, Albania
Event Name: 19th MFC Annual Conference: Microfinance in the Cloud
Event Dates: June 23-24, 2016
Event Location: Tirana International Hotel & Conference Center; Tirana, Albania
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fondazione Giordano Dell’Amore, European Microfinance Network Accepting Applications for $54k Microfinance Good Practices Award Through February 14, 2016
Fondazione Giordano Dell’Amore, an Italian foundation that supports microfinance, and the European Microfinance Network, a Belgian nongovernmental organization (NGO), recently announced the eighth annual edition of the Microfinance Good Practices Europe Award, a series that aims to increase awareness about microfinance as a tool for alleviating poverty and promote the sharing of good practice among microfinance organizations in Europe.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Opportunity International Selling 6 Banks in Sub-Saharan Africa to Financial Technology Company MyBucks
Opportunity International, a microfinance NGO based in the US city of Chicago, has announced that it intends to sell six of its banks that are located in unspecified sub-Saharan Africa to MyBucks Group, a financial technology company in Luxembourg.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 18th Microfinance Centre Annual Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, November 5-6, 2015
Event Name: Employment, Youth and Investment: What can Microfinance do?
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Centre (MFC) To Launch “Borrow Wisely” Campaign in Effort to Increase Financial Literacy in Europe, Central Asia
The Microfinance Centre (MFC), a Poland-based network of 103 microfinance providers in 27 countries, will launch a “Borrow Wisely” campaign during October 2014 with the goal of increasing the financial literacy of 80,000 low-income borrowers in nine countries in Europe and Central Asia.