Archive for the ‘Latest News’ Category

Microfinance Focus, Sep 3, 2010: Netherland based microfinance investment manager Triple Jump in collaboration with Oikocredit and CGAP will be organizing an Expert Meeting for Social Investors on Tools to Assess Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance of Microfinance Institutions on 23 September 2010. The meeting will bring together social investors to discuss the tools available and what they assess. The meeting is also the kick-off ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 3, 2010: Increasing the fund’s size to EUR 128 million, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has made a EUR 8 million contribution to the Green for Growth Fund, Southeast Europe (GGF) to finance energy efficiency and small-scale renewable energy projects implemented by businesses and households within the region.  BMZ’s contribution is supported by EUR 1 million in grants ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 3, 2010: Water For People, a non-profit international development organization, has received a $5.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support their Sanitation as a Business program. The grant represents an investment over four years in Water For People’s Sanitation as a Business work, testing possible sustainable sanitation services in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The program will combine ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 2, 2010: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development – EBRD will be lending up to 2.9 billion roubles (76 million) to Credit Europe Bank for meeting the growing demand for local currency loans from small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) of Russia, says a release. It will be an unsecured five-year senior loan to the Credit Europe Bank which is majority-owned by the ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 2, 2010: Addressing a gathering at the Global Insurance Summit organized by ASSOCHAM in Mumbai on Wednesday, Union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee stressed on the need of popularizing Microinsurance for achieving financial inclusion in the country. Identifying financial inclusion as one of the biggest challenges for the Indian insurance market, he said, “One of the important challenges before the insurance industry today is ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 2, 2010:  World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Daiwa Securities Group have announced their plan to issue a bond later this month to expand access to finance for poor and low-income entrepreneurs in developing countries. This will be IFC’s second microfinance bond.  The first issue in November 2009 raised about 25 billion Japanese yen. The bond is expected to raise up to ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 2, 2010: Village Enterprise Fund (VEF) has appointed Ms. Dianne Calvi as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. Headquartered in California, VEF works in Kenya and Uganda targeting start-up businesses in rural areas. The organization has helped entrepreneurs start 21,000 micro-businesses since 1987. It has a three-pronged economic development model (grants, training, and mentoring) for microenterprise development field. Prior to joining VEF, Dianne ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 1, 2010: International Finance Corporation (IFC), the financial arm of World Bank increased its investments in Sub-Saharan Africa to $2.4 billion during the fiscal year 2010 from $1.8 billion a year earlier. It was the first time IFC's annual investments surpassed $2.0 billion in the region. IFC mobilized an additional $1.1 billion from other investors and approved 40 new Advisory Services projects ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 1, 2010:  The San Francisco-based manager of the Social Enterprise Expansion Fund, Good Capital LLC lent a $200,000 subordinated loan to Root Capital a non-profit social enterprise to build Root Capital's brand and increase its capacity for additional growth on Tuesday according to a company’s statement. Root Capital provides financial services to small and growing businesses. Since its launch in 1999, it has ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 1, 2010: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) has appointed Tilman Ehrbeck as its new Chief Executive Officer on Tuesday in Washington DC. Ehrbeck will succeed Elizabeth Littlefield, who was recently appointed President and CEO of OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation). CGAP is an independent policy and research center and is supported by over 30 development agencies and private foundations. Housed at ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 1, 2010: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing a two-year $750,000 grant from the ADB-administered Regional Cooperation and Integration Fund to examine market supply and demand for microinsurance in People’s Republic of China and Mongolia. The grant will address policy, regulatory and institutional barriers in the region’s Microinsurance sector. ADB will work with the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2II), a global program ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Sep 1, 2010: Intellectual Capital Advisory Services Private Limited (Intellecap) a Social Investment Banking and Advisory Firm has appointed Mr. Krishan Sree Kumar to the post of the company’s CEO on Tuesday in Hyderabad, India. Mr.  Krishan Sree Kumar has over 25 years of experience in working with development finance institutions, the financial services industry, telecommunications companies, water and energy utilities, governments undergoing reform, ... Full story

Microfinance Focus Aug 31, 2010: The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has issued the final version of its paper entitled Microfinance activities and the Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision that contains supervisory 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. ... Full story

By Farhat Abbas Shah, Microfinance Focus, Aug 31, 2010: Recent floods in Pakistan have further plunged the already reeling economy. The estimation of the total damage will take some time but the need to microfinance the victims are dire as the failure in this sector can create a famine in not too distant a future. The government is already cash-strapped and avoided default the last year with ... Full story