The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has launched a PKR 10 billion (USD 116 million) concessional financing scheme through agriculture banks and development finance institutions (DFIs) to improve access to financing in areas affected by the major flooding earlier this year.
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MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Foundation Commences Certificate Program for Users of Its Progress Out of Poverty Index, Inductees to Appear on Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX)
Grameen Foundation, a US-based nonprofit, has launched a certificate program to recognize organizations that comply with new standards of use for its Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI), a tool developed by Grameen for tracking and reporting poverty data.
MICROCAPITAL EVENT: Fourth International Conference on Microfinance Sponsored By Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, India, January 27-29, 2011
Event Name: International Conference on Microfinance
Event Date: January 27 – January 29, 2011
Event Location: Pondicherry, India
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Coop Life Insurance & Mutual Benefit Services (CLIMBS), Munich Re, GTZ Partner to Create Microinsurance Product in the Philippines
Coop Life Insurance & Mutual Benefit Services (CLIMBS) of the Philippines; Munich Re, a reinsurance company established in 1880 in Munich; and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GTZ), a federally-owned development organization in Germany, are coming together to create a microinsurance product to protect microfinance loan portfolios in the Philippines that experience losses due to extreme weather.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Citi Foundation to Examine Possibility of Microfinance Programs in Hong Kong
The Citi Foundation, the charitable arm of global financial services provider Citigroup, has reportedly partnered with Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, a charitable organization in Hong Kong that was established in 1870, to study whether a microfinance program would be feasible in Hong Kong.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bhagwan Chowdhry Starts “Financial Access @ Birth” Campaign With Support From The Center for Financial Inclusion to Relieve Global Poverty Through Microsavings
Dr Bhagwan Chowdhry, professor of finance and faculty director at UCLA Anderson School of Management [2], has begun a campaign to increase financial inclusion and relieve poverty through microsavings.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Former Sun MicroSystems CEO Vinod Khosla Discusses Benefits of For-Profit Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)
Vinod Khosla, former CEO of Sun MicroSystems and founder of venture capital firm Khosla Ventures, argues that both for-profit and nonprofit microfinance models can serve a beneficial role, but ultimately points to for-profit status as the goal microfinance institutions (MFIs) should be aiming achieve.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Floods Cause $31m in Damage to 86 Branches of Pakistan’s Microfinance Institutions
According to participants at a recent roundtable in Islamabad organized by the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), last month’s floods in Pakistan caused PKR 2.7 billion (the equivalent of USD 31.4 million) in damage to 86 branches of the country’s microfinance institutions.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: India’s Finance Ministry Asks Banks to Ensure That Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to Which They Lend Cap Lending Rates at 24%
The financial services secretary of India, Mr R Gopalan, has written a letter to public-sector banks asking them to ensure that the microfinance institutions (MFIs) to which they lend on a wholesale basis do not charge more than 24 percent interest to retail borrowers.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Social Investors Investigate Criteria for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), Triple Jump, Oikocredit Hold Meeting to Mull Harmonization of ESG Evaluation
The Social Investor Working Group on Tool Sharing and Harmonization, a group born out of the Social Investor Group meeting in Bern in June 2010, where approximately 40 investors representing about half of total assets under management in the microfinance sector met to discuss socially responsible investing, is exploring different ways to assess the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs).
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) Calls on Funders to Join SmartAid 2011, An Index of Microfinance Support Efficacy
CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) has recently announced the release of SmartAid 2011, an index that measures and rates the way microfinance funders support microfinance.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Department of Agriculture of the Philippines Orders Release of $2.3m for Microfinance Activities in Areas Stricken by El Niño Drought
The Department of Agriculture of the Philippines, which is responsible for promoting prosperity in the country’s farming communities, recently ordered the release of PHP 100 million (the equivalent of USD 2.27 million) for microfinance activities in areas affected by an El Niño-induced drought.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Indian Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) Under Sa-Dhan to Lower Interest Rates by 2-3%
Officials from Sa-Dhan, an Indian microfinance industry association, announced that some of its 223 member microfinance institutions (MFIs) have agreed to lower interest rates by 2 percent to 3 percent.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Foundation Issues Standards for Progress out of Poverty Index Prior to Commencement of Certification Program
Grameen Foundation, a US-based nonprofit, recently announced the issuance of standards of use for its Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI), a tool developed by Grameen for tracking and reporting poverty data as reported by MicroCapital on February 26, 2009.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: August 27, 2010 Deadline Approaching for United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs’ Request for Proposals to Conduct Original Research Related to Microfinance, Trade Preference Programs
The United States Department of Labor, the Cabinet department responsible for fostering and promoting the welfare of the United States’ labor force, through its Bureau of International Labor Affairs, has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to conduct original research on microfinance, sustainable livelihoods, consumption smoothing and trade preference programs in developing countries.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Wall’s Street Advisor Services (WSAS) Releases Series of Benchmarks for Equity Investments in Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) – WSAS MFI Shareholder Value Indexes (SVIX)
Wall’s Street Advisor Services (WSAS), an independent investment research consultancy, released the first of a new series of benchmarks for equity investments in microfinance institutions (MFIs) – the WSAS MFI Shareholder Value Indexes (SVIX).
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: Why Microfinance Take-up Rates Are Low & Why It Matters, by Dean Karlan, Jonathan Morduch and Sendhil Mullainathan
By Dean Karlan, Jonathan Morduch and Sendhil Mullainathan, published by Financial Access Initiative, June 2010, available at: http://financialaccess.org/sites/default/files/RFN11_Why_microfinance_takeup_rates_are_low%286-17-10%29.pdf
Evidence indicates that under half of eligible households participate in microfinance. In this paper, Mr Karlan, Mr Morduch and Mr Mullainathan begin by reviewing why take-up rates are important and how they can be measured. Data from thirteen projects show that take-up rates vary from 2 to 84 percent of eligible individuals.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Press Releases “The Economics of Microfinance,” Second Edition, By Beatriz Armendriz and Jonathan Morduch
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Press has released the second edition of “The Economics of Microfinance,” by Beatriz Armendriz and Jonathan Morduch. The first edition, published in 2007, provided an overview of microfinance by addressing a range of issues, including lessons from informal markets, savings and insurance, the role of women, the place of subsidies, impact measurement and management incentives. It endeavored to integrated theory with empirical data, citing studies from Asia, Africa and Latin America and introducing ideas about asymmetric information, principal-agent theory and household decision-making in the context of microfinance.