Source: Philippine Information Agency
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MICROFINANCE EVENT: Strategic Planning Training for Microfinance Institutions, October 5-7, 2009, at Cebu City, Philippines, presented by the Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) and sponsored by the Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) and Ateneo de Manila University.
October 5-7, 2009, at Cebu City, Philippines.
See Our Comprehensive Event Calendar Here:
http://microfinanceassociation.ning.com/events
MICROCAPITAL PAPER WRAP-UP: Insurance, Credit, and Technology Adoption: Field Experimental Evidence From Malawi, by Xavier Gine and Dean Yang
Written by Xavier Gine and Dean Yang. Published by the Journal of Development Economics, Volume 89, Pgs 1-11, 2009. Available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTFR/Resources/GineYang-InsuranceMalawi.pdf (35 pgs)
In “Insurance, Credit and Technology Adoption: Field Experimental Evidence From Malawi,” Xavier Gine and Dean Yang determine whether farmers who are insured against production risk have a greater demand for loans in order to invest in new hybrid seed technology than farmers who are uninsured against the failure of the hybrid seeds. This study examines maize and groundnut farmers in Malawi , where the major source of crop failure is the level of rainfall. All the farmers were offered loans to purchase high-yield hybrid maize seeds or improved groundnut seeds. Farmers in 16 areas were also required to purchase weather insurance that would forgive the loan should there be insufficient rainfall. The uninsured loan did contain an implicit limited liability constraint that allowed the lender to seize a portion of the yield rather than the collateral presented by the borrower in case of low yield. 33 percent of farmers offered the uninsured loan accepted the loan. The farmers who were required to buy insurance were 39.4 percent less likely to accept a loan to purchase hybrid seeds.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Bangladesh Microcredit Regulatory Agency (MRA) Limits Interest Rates for Microfinance Institutions
At a meeting recently held at the Bangladesh Bank, the Microcredit Regulatory Agency (MRA) of Bangladesh announced that microfinance institutions (MFIs) will have to limit the interest rates they charge clients to a flat 15 percent or an effective rate of 30 percent. An MRA official said that the move is an interim measure, and that the MRA will announce a final interest rate policy for MFIs after “conducting an in-depth study”. In addition to the limits on interest rates the MRA announced that MFIs cannot collect deposits totaling more than 80 percent of their total outstanding loan portfolio, in order to prevent financial fraud. Additionally, according to a senior MRA official, MFIs will be empowered to purchase any fixed asset on the basis of the executive committee’s approval instead of the board of director’s consent. The MRA also asked that NGOs offering microfinance separate their microfinance activities from other business activities otherwise all of their business activities will fall under the monitoring and supervision of the MRA.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Will Peru’s Sluggish Economic Growth Impact Microlending? Microlender, MiBanco Plans to Slow their Loan Growth Rate to 25-30 Percent this Year in Light of Current Economic Conditions
MiBanco CEO Rafael Llosa recently informed Business News Americas (BNA) (a provider of Latin America news and business information, headquartered in Santiago, Chile) that the microlender will ease the loan growth rate this year. “We plan to slow our growth rate to 25-30 percent this year. Our strategy includes adding new clients but not aggressively as last year. In light of the current economic environment, the bank is focusing on its core business (loans to micro and small enterprises) and has stopped issuing home loans,” Mr Llosa stated.
NEWS WIRE: England: Asset Management Company ConCap Connective Capital in the Starting Blocks
Source: Reuters
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Mexican Microfinance Institution, Financiera Independencia, Reports First Quarter Net Income of Ps. 117.2m (USD 8.9m)
Financiera Independencia, a Mexican microfinance bank, reported their first quarter 2009 Net Income of 117.2 million pesos (USD 8.9 million). This was a decrease of 40 percent on a year-to-year basis. Net Operating Revenue of 612.8 million pesos (USD 46.6 million) did not fall significantly over the same period (0.2 percent), however Interest Expense increased by 150 percent or 57 million pesos (USD 4.3 million) and the Provision for Loan Losses increased by 61 percent or 76.8 million pesos (USD 5.8 million).
PAPER WRAP-UP: The New Money Lenders: Are the Poor Being Exploited by High Microcredit Interest Rates, by Richard Rosenberg, Adrian Gonzalez, and Sushma Narain
Richard Rosenberg, Adrian Gonzalez, and Sushma Narain, CGAP’s co-authors, provide an in-depth look to address the question of whether microcredit borrowers are being exploited by unreasonably high interest rates. CGAP is an independent policy and research center that provides market intelligence and is dedicated to advancing financial access for the world’s poor. The organization is housed at the World Bank and is supported by over 30 development agencies and private foundations. This paper explores the components of microcredit interest rates in order to provide a framework for borrowers and other microfinance practitioners to determine whether “excessive” MFI lending rates are more than occasional exceptions.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Risk Management for Microfinance Institutions and Banks
Risk Management for Microfinance Institutions and Banks
See Our Comprehensive Event Calendar Here: http://microfinanceassociation.ning.com/events
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Grameen Kalyan offers Health Microinsurance for USD 1.73 Per Year and Partners with Pfizer Inc, GE Healthcare, and Mayo Clinic. Is it Economically Viable? (Part I of IV)
This article on Grameen Kalyan is the second in a series of MicroCapital case studies on Health Microinsurance (HMI) schemes in Bangladesh. Please also refer to Part II on the HMI scheme of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC MHIB); Part III on the Society for Social Services (SSS); and Part IV, a wrap-up of the CGAP research paper “Health Microinsurance: A Comparative Study of Three Examples in Bangladesh”.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Grameen Foundation and Women’s World Banking Express Concern Over the Potential Crisis in Punjab, Pakistan’s Microfinance Sector
According to the Business Recorder (a Pakistani Daily Newspaper), the Grameen Foundation (GF) and Women’s World Banking (WWB), recently urged Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to take swift action to support the microfinance sector and help curtail inappropriate interventions by local politicians. While detail regarding the exact cause and nature of the elected representatives’ involvement is currently unspecified, President Alex Counts of GF in Washington DC and Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of WWB in New York City, expressed concern. The letter states that heads of the two U.S. non-profit support organizations for microfinance are “concerned that the microfinance sector in Pakistan is under threat. The intervention of some local elected representatives has given rise to a crisis, a situation, which has damaged the reputation of the microfinance sector in Pakistan and could lead to a major crisis with national as well as international implications.”
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) to Offer Financial Management Training for Microfinance Institutions
Financial Management Training for Microfinance Institutions, November 12-14, 2009, at Davao City, Philippines, presented by the Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) and sponsored by the Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) and Ateneo de Manila University.
November 12-14, 2009, at Davao City, Philippines.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Bangladesh Government to Investigate Activities of All Unauthorized MicroCredit Organizations Operating in the Country
Nearly 700 plus microcredit organizations in Bangladesh are operating without any authorization or approval. According to a press release on the Bangladesh online news portal bdnews24.com, this announcement was made by Enamul Huq Mustafa Shahid, the Social welfare Minister of Bangladesh. Mr. Shahid stated that this issue concerning unauthorized microcredit organizations in operation would first be raised before the Cabinet following which an investigating body would be formed by the Parliament to look into the activities of all non-government organizations (NGOs) in the country registered with different agencies. Bdnews24 is Bangladesh’s first online newspaper managed by former BBC broadcaster and journalist Toufique Imrose Khalidi in partnership with Reuters.
PAPER WRAP-UP: Microfinance and Climate Change: Threats and Opportunities, by Paul Rippey
Written by Paul Rippey, published in March 2009 as Focus Note Number 53 by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), 20 pages, full text available at: http://www.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.34043/FN_53%20ENG_4-08-09a.pdf
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Microfinance Lessons for a Macrofinance Mess
As world leaders met in London to discuss the global financial crisis, one of the items on the agenda was how the major economies and international institutions could mitigate the impact of the crisis on the world’s poorest counties. Several measures were proposed to reaffirm the G-20’s commitment to the most vulnerable. Yet, a recent Christian Science Monitor article argues that global financial players should instead be listening to what the poor have to say about financial institutions and take some lessons from the microfinance sector.
WHO’S WHO IN MICROFINANCE: Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder of BRAC (the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee)
Fazle Hasan Abed is the founder and chairperson of BRAC (formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), the Bangladesh based development organization dedicated to poverty alleviation and rural empowerment. BRAC was founded in February 1972 an almost entirely donor-funded, small-scale relief and rehabilitation project to aid post-Liberation War Bangladesh and has now expanded into a private development organization dedicated to poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor, serving an estimated 100 million Bangladeshis with presence in all 64 districts of Bangladesh.
PAPER WRAP-UP: Due Diligence Guidelines for the Review of Microcredit Loan Portfolios: A Tiered Approach, by Robert Christen
Written by Robert Peck Christen, working draft made available for field-testing, recommendations invited at r.christen@bouldermicrofinance.org, released June 2005 by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), 39 pages, full-text available at: http://www.microfinancegateway.org/files/26200_file_26200.pdf
MICROCAPITAL EVENT: Belgrade to Host Twelfth Annual MFC Conference of Microfinance Institutions Jointly Organized with Microfinance Development Fund Serbia, Co-Sponsored by responsAbility and Blue Orchard
12th MFC Conference of Microfinance Institutions – Global Crisis: Threat or Opportunity for Microfinance?
MAY 25-27, 2009, The Continental Hotel, Belgrade, Serbia