by the MicroCapital Team -

SPECIAL REPORT: Saluting MFI Staff, Promoting Flexible Products, “Keeping the Client at the Heart” as European Microfinance Week Closes

e-MFP logoA panel of microfinance luminaries shared their moments of pride and disappointment at the closing plenary of this year’s European Microfinance Week. Yannick Milev of the Cambodian microfinance institution Chamroeun expressed his admiration for the staff members of Chamroeun, who continued to work through the COVID-19 pandemic at significant risk to their and their families’ health because “stopping operations completely would have had a terrible effect on us and on our clients.” Mr Milev added that Chamroeun issued many loans during the early days of the pandemic to help clients diversify in response to the economic effects of COVID-19.

Marc Labie of Belgium’s University of Mons described the pandemic as “a chance for the industry to

by the MicroCapital Team -

SPECIAL REPORT: How to Achieve Responsible Digital Financial Services: European Microfinance Week Opens

e-MFP logoAt the opening plenary of European Microfinance Week, where over 500 attendees are gathering now in-person and online, Tidhar Wald of the UN’s Better Than Cash Alliance noted that over 1 billion more people worldwide have achieved financial inclusion over the past decade. While this has helped some to boost their livelihoods, many have accessed financial services via digital services, which carry different risks than in-person services. Data protection is an obvious example, as more client data is being digitized, and fraud is on the rise. Other risks, even though well-known to providers of in-person financial services, require different

by the MicroCapital Team -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CERISE, SPTF Invite Microfinance Institutions to Join Client Protection Pathway

Two NGOs, Comité d’Echange, de Réflexion et sur les Systèmes d’Epargne-Crédit (CERISE) of France and the US-based Social Performance Task Force (SPTF), recently announced the Client Protection Pathway, a free service through which financial service providers (FSPs) may get support and recognition for improving the ways they serve clients. The first step in the pathway is to agree that “Our organization has