The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, announced that it is investing USD 4 million into Kyrgyz microfinance institution Bai Tushum. The investment will help the company provide loans to about 10,000 microenterprises, private entrepreneurs, and farmers in remote areas of Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz Republic joined the IFC in 1993 and the IFC has since committed almost USD 75 million to the country, including USD 5 million in advisory services focused on microfinance, housing finance, corporate governance, and business environment.
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MICROCAPITAL STORY: Caspian Advisors-Managed India Financial Inclusion Fund (IFIF) Raises Additional $20m for Investment in Microfinance Institutions
The India Financial Inclusion Fund (IFIF), an off-shore equity fund, has raised USD 20 million in capital, taking its total fund size to USD 58 million. IFIF focuses on equity investments in Indian companies that are “directly or indirectly associated with bringing about the inclusion of the poor within the formal financial system.”
MICROCAPITAL EVENT: Investments in Microfinance 2009: Conference on Surviving the Liquidity Crisis and Ensuring Sustainable Growth to be held in London, United Kingdom from July 7-8, 2009
Investments in Microfinance 2009: Surviving the Liquidity Crisis and Ensuring Sustainable Growth
July 7-8, 2009, London, United Kingdom
HansonWade Ltd., a London based research firm will host Investment in Microfinance 2009, a two-day conference event in London on the 7th and 8th of July, 2009. The event is focused specifically on the theme ‘Surviving the Liquidity Crisis and Ensuring Sustainable Growth’ and will explore how key microfinance institutions (MFIs) and funds are changing their strategies to ensure survival amidst the financial crisis. Participants at the event include institutional investors, portfolio managers, equity investors, consultants, asset managers, philanthropic investors and socially responsible investors. Key organizations participating in this event include the Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, CitiGroup, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, SKS Microfinance, Blue Orchard, IFC, KFW and Women’s World Banking among others. The event will be held at the Hilton Easton Hotel in London.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Microfinance Insights Reports Over 80% of Investors Haven’t Reduced Microfinance Investment Portfolio Due to Global Recession
In its latest issue Microfinance Insights explores how industry stakeholders have been affected by the global liquidity crisis. While microloan clients have been squeezed by the crisis and MFIs have struggled to work with less liquidity, equity investors continue to show interest in investing in large microfinance institutions, confident they will weather the crisis. In this issue the magazine surveys 120 MFIs and 40 investors from around the world.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Russian Delegation Visits Grameen Bank of Bangladesh in Efforts to Scale-Up Microfinance Industry and Mitigate Financial Crisis
Bangladeshi news source The Daily Star reported that a high-profile Russian delegation visited the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh to examine how the country regulates its relatively saturated microfinance industry. The delegation observed the operations and legal structure of Grameen Bank in hopes to replicate the structure in Russia. The four-day visit came as Russia explores ways to scale-up its microcredit program to fill a void left by the global financial meltdown. “The global financial crisis has affected many small businesses in Russia while the conventional banks are not willing to finance them for risk involvement in such financing,” said delegation leader and Russian Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Anna Popova, at a joint press conference with Muhammad Yunus in Dhaka City.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Azerdemiryolbank of Azerbaijan Receives $3m Loan from ING Bank to Support Microfinance Business
Azerdemiryolbank of Azerbaijan received a 12-month loan worth USD 3 million from the ING Bank of the Netherlands. According to a press release on Trend Capital, the loan would support microfinance businesses in Azerbaijan. The release quoted Mr. Yusif Jabbarov, the Vice-Chairman of the Bank, as saying the stated loan was the first cooperation in micro-crediting between a Dutch bank and an Azerbaijani lending agency.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: New Microfinance Foreign Exchange Risk Management Group, Cygma, Believes Credit Crunch Provides Business Opportunity
Cygma, the new microfinance foreign exchange (FX) risk management group, believes that the current financial situation is driving people in the microfinance industry to use foreign currency hedging facilities. The organisation will be launching its FX hedging products for illiquid and difficult-to-hedge emerging markets currencies in the first quarter of next year. These will be executed directly by the firm without reliance on third parties, supported by its USD 50 million capital reserve fund.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Thirty-Five Organizations Sign Client Protection Principles to Ensure Fair Treatment and Financial Protection of Low-Income Microfinance Clients
In late October, 35 microfinance institutions (MFIs) and investment funds signed the Client Protection Principles (CPP), a list of pro-consumer principles and mandates that aims to become an industry-wide standard for ensuring the fair treatment and financial protection of low-income microfinance clients. The CPP are part of a larger campaign launched in September of 2008 at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, a conglomeration of governments and public and private organizations dedicated to sustainable development, with the goal of incorporating at least half of the world’s 500 largest MFIs within the next three years. According to Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), there is little evidence of client abuse in the microfinance sector.
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.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Global Summit on Microfinance as an Alternate Asset Class for Institutional Investors
GLOBAL SUMMIT ON MICROFINANCE AS AN ALTERNATIVE ASSET CLASS FOR INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS
OCTOBER 29-30, MILLENIUM KNIGHTSBRIDGE HOTEL, LONDON, ENGLAND
The conference will focus on the opportunities and challenges for microfinance investments as the industry becomes larger and converges with mainstream financial institutions. Specific topics will include the current state of the microfinance sector, the risks and rewards for institutional investors involved in microfinance, an evaluation of rating metrics currently employed, lessons and opportunities taken from other asset classes, good governance in microfinance institutions (MFIs), and developing a universal framework for evaluating social returns. A complete agenda can be found of the conference website.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Lok Capital and the Dell Foundation Announce Investment in Indian Microfinance Organization Arohan
Lok Capital, a microfinance venture capital fund focused on India, and the Dell Foundation, a charitable organization, have announced an investment in Arohan Financial Services Limited, a for-profit Indian microfinance institution (MFI). The size of the equity investment was not disclosed. Arohan offers microcredit and credit-linked insurance to urban women in Kolkata, and it plans to use the funds to expand operations to other urban centers in eastern India and to expand its product offering.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: International Finance Corporation (IFC) Loans the Kyrgyz Investment and Credit Bank (KCIB) USD 5 million to Expand Microfinance Operations and Provides Mortgage Lending Advisory Services to Microfinance Institution Bai Tushum in the Kyrgyz Republic
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, announced a pair of microfinance and mortgage initiatives in the Krygyz Republic. On the microfinance side, IFC is extending a USD 5 million loan to the Kyrgyz Investment and Credit Bank (KICB), a full-service commercial bank in the Krygyz Republic. The proceeds will be directed toward expanding lending to micro, small and medium businesses in remote areas of the Krygyz Republic, as well as supporting agricultural projects.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: FINCA Azerbaijan to Increase Microlending to Farmers
FINCA Azerbaijan has announced plans to increase microlending to farmers in an effort to support food security in the face of an emerging world food shortage. Currently, 30 percent of the nonprofit’s loan portfolio represent agricultural microenterprises, about USD 17 million. In his statement announcing the plan, FINCA Azerbaijan Director Jeff Flowers indicated that the increase in farm crediting is intended to ensure food security, but he did not offer any projections on the size of the increase.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: A Discussion of the Women’s World Banking Study “Stemming the Tide of Mission Drift”
THE IMPACT OF COMMERCIALIZATION ON WOMEN MICROFINANCE CLIENTS
JUNE 24, 2008, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
Women Advancing Microfinance – New York (WAM-NY) and Women’s World Banking (WWB) are hosting this opportunity to learn about and discuss the findings of WWB’s “landmark” study of mission drift among microfinance institutions that transform from NGOs into regulated financial institutions.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Dual Return Loans $1m to FINCA Armenia
In its list of recent transactions, CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) reported that Austrian investment firm Dual Return loaned USD 1,000,000 through its Vision Microfinance Fund to nonprofit microlender FINCA Armenia.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Launched in July 2006, the Luxembourg Fund Labelling Agency (LuxFLAG) has Awarded its Microfinance Label to Five Microfinance Investment Vehicles (MIVs) and Attained Listing on the Centrale de Communications Luxembourg (CCLux) Database
Earlier this year, the Centrale de Communications Luxembourg (CCLux), a subsidiary of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, began listing the Luxembourg Fund Labelling Agency (LuxFLAG) Microfinance Label as a searchable classification on its online Consultation Portal. For users of CCLux, this means that they can now quickly and easily identify microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) which have been approved by LuxFLAG.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Finethic Microfinance S.C.A. of Luxembourg Lends $1m to Microfinance Institution (MFI) FINCA Armenia and $1m to MFI FINCA Kyrgyzstan
The Microfinance Capital Markets Newsletter of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) reports that Finethic Microfinance S.C.A., a Luxembourg-based microfinance investment company, has issued loans of USD 1 million to microfinance institution (MFI) FINCA Armenia and USD 1 million to MFI FINCA Kyrgyzstan.
PRESS RELEASE: Credit Suisse Plans to Introduce Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Index, Discusses Going “Beyond Charity” to SRIs Such as Microfinance
Source: Credit Suisse.