by Stefanie Rubin -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Germany’s Environment Ministry, KfW to Launch $500m Microfinance Fund for Climate Projects in Brazil, Asia, Africa

Germany’s Federal Environment Ministry recently announced it would be launching a USD 500 million climate fund that will provide microloans for individual energy efficiency or renewables projects initially through local banks in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Morocco, the Philippines and South Africa.

by Julia Korn -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Information Exchange Releases “Is Microfinance Growing Too Fast?” by Adrian Gonzalez Indicating Portfolio Quality Negatively Correlated with Increasing Number of Borrowers

The Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) has released a paper by researcher Adrian Gonzalez entitled “Is Microfinance Growing Too Fast?”

by Conner Brannen -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: G20’s Financial Inclusion Experts Group (FIEG) Releases Nine “Principles for Innovative Financial Inclusion” at Leadership Summit in Toronto, Canada

The Financial Inclusion Experts Group (FIEG), a division of the G20 – a group of twenty finance ministers and central bank governors that discuss key issues in the global economy – released nine “Principles for Innovative Financial Inclusion” at the recent G20 leadership summit in Toronto. The principles are intended to form the basis of a concrete action plan for improving access to financial services for the poor, which will be released at the Seoul Summit in November.

by Conner Brannen -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) and Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) to Share Data With $187,000 Grant From Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation, a US-based grantmaking organization, has awarded a USD 187,000 grant to two other US-based nonprofits, Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) and the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), to “increase transparency and comparability across microfinance and the broader impact investing industry.” The grant will be used to develop a data feed that will allow GIIN’s Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) project, which was created to develop a common framework for defining, tracking and reporting the performance of “impact capital,” to access data from MIX.

by Stefanie Rubin -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) and Sanabel Grant Certificates of Transparency to 43 Arab Microfinance Institutions

The nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) and Sanabel, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing Arabic microfinance, recently awarded certificates of transparency to 43 microfinance institutions from Arab countries.

by Julia Korn -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) Calls for “Test Pilots” to Assess New Features of MIX Market Website, May Begin Charging for Premium Content

The Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) has announced the launch of new services on its MIX Market website starting in July 2010, including mid-year data for select microfinance institutions (MFIs) and more comprehensive and up-to-date country profiles. According to MIX Market, eventually these services may only be available to paying subscribers, but the date of any such change is not specified.

by Julia Korn -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MIX Market Releases 2008-2009 Microfinance Trend Report on Russia, Revealing Financial Crisis Highest in 2009

The MIX Market has released an analysis of Russian microfinance data entitled “Russia Microfinance Trend Report 2008-2009,” which states that the peak of the crisis in the Russian microfinance sector occurred at the end of 2008 and in early 2009.

by Julia Korn -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Asian Development Bank (ADB) Provides $3m Grant to Small Industries Development Bank of India for Women Who Have Outgrown Microfinance, Are Caught in the “Missing Middle”

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), a regional development bank headquartered in Manila, the Philippines, which in 2007 approved USD 10.1 billion in loans [1], is providing a USD 3 million grant to the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to offer services to female entrepreneurs in India. The grant will target women who have “outgrown traditional microfinance support, but who are unable to access more conventional bank financing – the so called ‘missing middle’ group of the small enterprise sector” [3].

by Conner Brannen -

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: Savings Constraints and Microenterprise Development: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Kenya, by Pascaline Dupas and Jonathan Robinson

By Pascaline Dupas and Jonathan Robinson, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), March 23, 2009, 48 pages, available at: http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/14693.html

Ms Dupas and Mr Robinson conduct a field experiment to examine whether savings constraints prevent the self-employed from increasing the size of their businesses. In order to test their hypotheses, the authors opened interest-free savings accounts for a random selection of low-income earners in rural Kenya. Although the bank charged substantial withdrawal fees, take-up and usage was high among women. Furthermore, the savings accounts had substantial, positive impacts on their productive investment levels and expenditures. The results suggest that a significant proportion of daily income earners face important savings constraints and have a demand for formal saving devices.

by Stefanie Rubin -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) Seeks Nominations for Social Performance Reporting Awards 2010

The nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) is seeking nominations for the Social Performance Reporting Awards, established in 2009 by CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), the Ford Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and the Social Performance Task Force (SPTF), a group aimed at defining social performance for microfinance institutions (MFIs).

by Christine Chang -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: LeapFrog Investments Microinsurance Fund Raises Additional $25m in Commitments from New Investors Including J.P. Morgan and TIAA-CREF

LeapFrog Investments, an international for-profit microinsurance fund, recently announced its final close raising USD 25 million for a total fund size of USD 137 million for investments in Africa and Asia.

by Stefanie Rubin -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) Releases 2009 Benchmarking Report on Eastern Europe and Central Asia in Russian

The nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) recently released the 2009 Eastern Europe and Central Asia Microfinance Analysis and Benchmarking Report in Russian.

by Stefanie Rubin -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: LeapFrog Investments Poised to Invest $30m to $37m in Microinsurance Projects in India

In a recent interview with the Indian online news platform VCCircle, Mr Jim Roth, Principal at LeapFrog Investments, a private equity microinsurance fund, said that of the fund’s USD 110 million in capital, it would commit USD 30 to 37 million to microinsurance products in India.

by Christine Chang -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Dutch Investor in Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) Oikocredit Pays USD 675,000 for 10-Percent Stake in India-based ESAF Microfinance and Investment

Oikocredit, a Dutch investor in microfinance institutions (MFIs), has paid INR 30 million (USD 675,000) for a 10-percent stake in Kerala-based ESAF (Evangelical Social Action Forum) Microfinance and Investment Private Limited (ESAF). The investment was made through a wholly-owned Indian subsidiary of Oikocredit, Manaveeya Holdings and Investments.