Archive for the ‘Featured News’ Category

By Asma Azmi Microfinance Focus, March 3, 2010: The Microfinance Focus group on LinkedIn has spurred a thought-provoking debate on whether the interest rates charged by MFIs are reasonable by any sense or not. Initiated by Dr. Souren Ghosal, an independent banking professional, the debaters came up ... Full story

Microfinance Focus , March 02, 2010 : A joint paper issued by CGAP and JP Morgan shows that the microfinance private equity market continued to boom in 2009 – particularly in India – in stark contrast to what the report describes as the most difficult year for microfinance since the Asian financial crisis in the 90s. ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Feb 28, 2010: “Recent repayment troubles in four rapidly-growing microfinance markets do not stem from the financial crisis but from the way that microfinance operates in fast-growth markets" said the report  “Growth and Vulnerabilities in Microfinance” released by CGAP (The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), a microfinance research and information group based at the World Bank. ... Full story

By Nagesh Narayana Microfinance Focus, Feb 26, 2010: Presenting the Union Budget 2010-11 to parliament on Friday, India's Finance Minister has reiterated the UPA government's commitment to expanding financial inclusion and expanding the microfinance programmes, by doubling allocation to Micro-Finance Development and Equity Fund to Rs. 400 crore (INR 4,000 million). He has also increased allocation by Rs 100 crore (INR 1,000 million) each to the Financial ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Feb 21, 2010: The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has issued for consultation a report that contains the guidance for the application of the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision (BCP) to microfinance activities, and the range of practices on regulating and supervising microfinance activities, according to an official press release. The guidance ... Full story

By Ramesh Kumar Microfinance Focus, Feb 18, 2010/New Delhi : Mathew Titus, Executive Director of Sa-Dhan shares his vision and concerns about microfinance in an exclusive interview with Microfinance Focus Consulting Editor Ramesh Kumar. Here are excerpts: Microfinance Focus: Microfinance in its current form is more than 30 years old. How has been its journey in India so far? Mathew Titus: Growth continues to be good. Organizations in ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Feb 17, 2010: A joint report by the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in an Era of Global Uncertainty: Asia- Pacific Regional Report 2009/10”, examines the toll that the global economic crisis has taken on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region.  The global economic crisis could fence in an ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Feb 9, 2010: The MasterCard Foundation and the Equity Group Foundation (EGF) have launched a program that will provide $4.6 million in educational support to 676 secondary students in Kenya over the next five years. Reeta Roy, President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation, and EGF Chairman Dr. James Mwangi announced the partnership at an event in Nairobi on Monday, presided by Kenyan Prime ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Feb 8, 2010: In November, the EBRD teamed up with the Netherlands Development Finance Company, the International Co-operation and Development Fund (ICDF) and five commercial banks to lend €50 million to Garanti Bank. The financing will be available for investments in small companies operating outside the three main Turkish cities of Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir. Garanti Bank is one of two Turkish banks that ... Full story

By Asma Aziz Microfinance Focus, Feb. 7, 2010: Incorporated as a peer-to-peer lending service, which allows a direct transaction between lenders and borrowers, without any intermediaries, Zidisha is all set to scale P2P fundraising to newer heights. With a Swahili name implying ‘expand’, the organization connects low income entrepreneurs of developing nations to lenders across the globe ... Full story

By Martina Rani Microfinance Focus, Feb. 7, 2010: The developing countries strive to give financial access to the poor and vulnerable groups for poverty reduction and social cohesion through their financial inclusion projects which aim at delivery of financial services at an affordable cost to them. People in developing countries have less options for transferring money and accessing banking services, because there is less deployed formal ... Full story

By Arvind Ashta and Djamchid Assadi Microfinance Focus, Feb. 7, 2010: The microfinance movement has been witnessing high growth rates along with high interest rates of about 28% per annum on average (CGAP, 2009). The small loan size in relation to transactional costs is the usual explanation offered for the high interest rates. One possibility of lowering these interest rates is through technology such as using ... Full story

By Matthew Fuchs Microfinance Focus, Feb 4, 2010: While microfinance institutions in Latin America are recovering as the general economic climate stabilizes, demand from MFIs for debt from external sources such as microfinance funds will remain subdued in the first half of 2010. And when growth returns, it is unlikely to be at the pace the ... Full story

By Nagesh Narayana Microfinance Focus, Feb 4, 2010: AccessBank, the leader of commercial microfinance in Azerbaijan, has recently submitted pricing data for all its microfinance loan products to MFTransparency. To date, AccessBank has 98,000 active borrowers and by far the largest portfolio of microfinance products in Azerbaijan, totaling $297 million as of January 1, 2010. AccessBank is a member of the Azerbaijani Micro-finance Association (AMFA), MFTransparency’s partner ... Full story