Posts Tagged ‘microfinance’

By Asma Azmi Microfinance Focus, March 8, 2010: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has reiterated that the Financial Sector Development Partnership Fund will focus both on access to finance and microfinance areas, which are essential to its overall strategy to achieve financial infrastructure and capacity building, besides technical assistance to developing countries in Asia. The Financial Sector Development Partnership Fund of ADB has raised $1.56 million in ... Full story

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 1, 2010: World Vision began distributing hundreds of blankets and some water containers to Santiago's earthquake survivors over the weekend as it prepared to start an extensive response in the hardest hit areas south of the capital. Many of the communities in Chile where the aid group already works--including Lota City, Temuco, Concepcion and other areas in the Bio Bio region and ... 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 25, 2010: Nexus Venture Partners, a 1,500-crore venture capital fund based in Mumbai, specializing on rural credit and microfinance, will hold a seminar on "Microfinance in India -- Where is it headed?" in Mumbai on March 4, 2010, said a press note. It will be part of their “Coffee with Nexus” series. "The objective is always to foster entrepreneurship and help companies scale ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Feb 18, 2010: India's largest microfinance institution SKS Microfinance has denied reports that Catamaran Fund, the private equity fund of Infosys mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy, is negotiating to acquire a pre-IPO stake in the company. Speaking to Microfinance Focus in Hyderabad, SKS CEO Suresh Gurumani said, "That is a rumour. I cannot comment on it." He clarified this when sought his reaction to reports published ... 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: CellTrust Corporation, supplier of secure mobile messaging and applications, has announced the launch of its SecureSMS Mobile Banking and Payment Pilot for the African region.  CellTrust recently partnered with Maxim-Pro Ltd., based in Abuja, Nigeria, to secure and mobile enable their successful banking platform with the view to extending secure mobile banking and payment services to under and un-banked populations. ... Full story

Feb 9, 2010: L&T Finance, the financial services arm of the engineering giant Larsen & Toubro said it is planning to extend its micro-finance business to Gujarat and Orissa soon, said a report by PTI. "In the microfinance sector we have been working for over one-and-half-years now in four states--Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra--where we have over 5 lakh clients," L&T Finance vice-president Dinanath ... Full story

By Nagesh Narayana Microfinance Focus, Feb 5, 2010: Supported by a three-year, $3 million grant from JPMorgan Chase Foundation, an inaugural sponsor of the program in 2008, Grameen Foundation has announced it is expanding its Bankers without Borders® (BwB) initiative, which taps senior working professionals for short-term, field-based or remote skills-based projects supporting microfinance institutions (MFIs) and technology-for-development initiatives. Since the program's launch, approximately 3,000 professionals from ... Full story

By Farhat Abbas Shah Feb 3, 2010: Poverty certainly emerged as the single most problem that lies at the heart of modern day crisis. It quite recently has assumed alarming proportions. Many efforts were made in the past but they could not wholly succeed. Among significant tools, the microfinance was also used for getting rid of poverty which quite recently plagued the whole world. There is ... Full story

By Nagesh Narayana Microfinance Focus, Jan. 30, 2010: In the past, microfinance services have helped to empower and provide stability for poor Haitians but the need is far greater now with the 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastating the nation on January 12 and leaving 200,000 dead. Those who survived were left without food and water for days and ... Full story

By Nagesh Narayana Microfinance Focus, Jan. 22, 2010: MicroVest, a US microfinance investment vehicle that is registered as a Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) with SEBI, has subscribed INR 20 crore (US$ 4.27 Million) worth secured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs)  issued by Bangalore-based Grameen Financial Services Private Limited, a microfinance institution, according to Unitus Capital which was the sole adviser to the transaction. This is the first instance ... Full story

By Vijay Mahajan and P N Vasudevan Microfinance Focus , Jan 10, 2010 : The past few years have seen the entire microfinance sector grow exponentially. As with any other boom, suspicion always exists on whether a bust is just around the corner. This is especially true in the current international setting; with a major financial bust that humbled Alan Greenspan to admit he was “in ... Full story