Acceder.com is a non-profit internet-based microfinance charity with the mission, “to accomplish (their) dream of equal opportunity” by providing interest-free loans in Jewish communities. It is run by the New York based ACCEDER Foundation. Loans currently only benefit borrowers in Argentina. Users can scroll through a list of potential borrower’s profiles and decide whom they would like support with a minimum contribution of USD 25. The money is then funneled through Acceder.com to Acceder loan officers in Argentina who are in charge of screening clients, distributing loans and collecting repayments. Although the website does not provide information on standard loan sizes, posted loan sizes range from USD 1700 to USD 2700. The loans finance purposes such as small businesses, trips to Israel, housing improvement, and debt consolidation.
Search Results for: microfinance financial crisis
MICROCAPITAL STORY: The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) with Support from JP Morgan Chase & Co. Releases Empirically Based Study of Valuation Models Used in Microfinance Equity Investments
The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a policy and research center housed at the World Bank dedicated to advancing financial access to the world’s poor, has released a path breaking report in February 2009 entitled, “Shedding Light on Microfinance Equity Valuation: Past and Present,” produced with limited analytical support from banking firm JPMorgan Chase & Co. The white paper is notable in providing an empirically grounded analysis of how financial valuation methods are actually applied by external actors to MFIs and other lending institutions with poverty alleviation goals. This is made possible by CGAP’s collection of information on 144 private equity transactions, the largest such dataset gathered to date, as well as information on 10 MFIs and other low income focused lenders that have raised funds through the issuance of securities. The original report is available at:
NEWS WIRE: Microfinance: Ready for its Big Leap?
Source: US Banker.
MICROCAPITAL EVENT: 2009 Coalition of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Policy Conference to be held in Washington D.C. from March 1-3
2009 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Policy Conference
March 1-3, 2009
The 2009 CDFI Institute Policy Conference will be held in Washington D.C., USA from March 1-3, 2009. The three day conference, which will feature dialogue with community development finance experts about issues facing the field of development finance, will be held at The Liaison Capitol Hill, an Affinia hotel. Participants at the event include policy makers, CDFI members, socially responsible investors, pension funds and banks. The event website can be found here.
PRESS RELEASE: Oikocredit increases investments in turmoil of credit crisis
Source: Oikocredit.
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.”
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: Microfinance: Ready For its Big Leap? By John Engen
The cover story of the February, 2009 issue of US Banker was entitled, “Microfinance: Ready for its Big Leap?” In it, author John Engen lays out his expectations that a hybrid funding approach will arrive in microfinance sector – one that meshes government, non-profit, and business ethos in pursuit of a “double bottom line” that measures success both with respect to social benefits and financial returns. However, Mr. Engen argues that to attract more funding from private investors, MFIs need further adjustments in both their business practices and ideologies. While such adjustments may be controversial and draw criticism at present, in the long term the changes should induce competition in the sector, and so the theory goes, be beneficial. The real question then is: are MFIs ready for such a big leap? The full text is available at:
http://www.americanbanker.com/usb_article.html?id=20090126JLCSNV6Y&pagenum=1&numpages=3
NEWS WIRE: ‘Lend to End Poverty’ Campaign Calls On World Economic Forum to Prioritize Microfinance
Source: CSR Wire.
PAPER WRAP-UP: Post-Crisis Microfinance: Literature Review by Ivica Petrikova
Written by Ivica Petrikova of the School of International Service, American University, this report analyzes how conflicts and disasters affect the poor population and Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and the role MFIs should play in such situations. It references other relevant studies by researchers and examines the best-practices proposed by them for MFI initiatives in crisis-affected areas. The 10 page document was published in November 2008 and the full text of the report is available here.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: ACCION’s “Lend to end Poverty” Petition Surpasses 20k Signatures Calling on World Economic Forum to Focus on Microfinance
As nearly 2500 world business leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2009, ACCION announced that its “Lend to End Poverty” petition surpassed the 20 thousand signature mark. The online petition began earlier in January, and calls on the co-chairs to promote and prioritize microfinance as a subject at the conference. ACCION estimates microfinance could benefit 500 million poor entrepreneurs over the next 10 years, and is only reaching 10 to 20 percent of its potential today.
NEWS WIRE: Recent CGAP and USAID Publications Show Effects of Food Crisis on MFIs
Source: Microfinance Gateway .
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Grameen Shakti Managing Director, Dipal Barua, Wins $1.5m Energy Prize for Implementing 200 Thousand Solar Panels in Bangladesh with Microfinance Scheme
The first annual Abu Dhabi based Zayed Future Energy Prize, worth USD 1.5 million, was awarded to the Founding Manager Director of Grameen Shakti, Dipal C. Barua, for his work in financing and installing over 200 thousand solar panels that have electrified the homes of approximately 2 million people in rural Bangladesh. Grameen Shakti, or “Village Energy,” was founded as a non-profit in 1996 as a sister organization of the Nobel Peace Prize winning microfinance institution Grameen Bank. Grameen Shakti’s website says that their solar power program “really took off the ground when rural clients realized (solar panels) are more cost effective than other conventional sources of energy such as kerosene and provide more utilities.” Grameen Shakti hopes to implement 1 million solar panels by 2015. As reported by the Financial Times, with over 30 million families without access to the electrical grid in Bangladesh, the potential for future growth of Grameen Shakti’s solar power program is enormous.
NEWS WIRE: Fitch Sees Microfinance Tested By Crisis
Source: Easy Bourse.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: South Korean Microfinance Sector Receives Public Subsidies while Citibank Funds $139K to Joyful Union to Create a ‘Sustainable Microcredit Model’
In the wake of the financial crisis in South Korea, funds have been allocated towards microfinance from both the public and private sectors. First, Citibank Korea announced that it would grant USD 139,000 and continue its partnership with microfinance institution (MFI) Joyful Union in a project called “Creating a sustainable microcredit model in Korea.” Then the Government of Korea announced that it too would increase its support of low-income businesses by subsidizing loans and credit guarantees to self employed street vendors and shop owners.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: The Push and Pull of China’s Microfinance Expansion
A series of key events over the past three months in China have indicated that microfinance is making steady, but slow, progress in its expansion. These events include the Microfinance Investor Conference, held in Beijing in December 11 and 12, 2008, which brought together Chinese MFIs, international investors and other stakeholders and provided an overview of the Chinese microfinance landscape; Citigroup Inc., one of the world’s largest financial conglomerates, opening up in China’s rural areas; and finally the Chinese government’s relaxation of financial constraints intended to increase capital flows. In a brief analysis of these events over the last three months, the following provides a brief examination of China’s microfinance industry.
NEWS WIRE: Pakistan: The Case of Microfinance in the Post Crisis World
Source: The Nation.
MICROCAPITAL EVENT: American Conference Institute and PlaNet Finance Host Global Microfinance Investment Congress 2009 in New York
GLOBAL MICROFINANCE INVESTMENT CONGRESS 2009
MAY 18-20 2009, NEW YORK CITY, USA
The American Conference Institute, a global business intelligence provider headquartered in New York, and PlaNet Finance, a French non-profit company that assists microfinance institutions (MFIs), will host the second annual Global Microfinance Investment Congress in New York, USA. The three day event will be held from May 18th to 20th 2009 in New York City. The event brings together professionals from diverse backgrounds – public and corporate pension funds, hedge funds, MFIs, venture capitalist firms, investment and commercial banks, insurance funds and technology funds and firms – to discuss future investments strategies for microfinance and sources of finance. Please refer the event website for a list of the organizations represented.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a Fund Administered by the Inter-American Development Bank, to Provide $20m in Financing to the Emergency Liquidity Fund (ELF) to Help Latin American and Caribbean Microfinance Institutions
The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), an autonomous fund administered by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), will provide up to USD 20 million in financing to the Emergency Liquidity Facility (ELF), a fund located in San Jose, Costa Rica. According to a press release on the IDB website, the funding would be used to help Latin American and Caribbean microfinance institutions ‘weather economic crisis and natural disasters’ and overcome liquidity shortages.