Posts Tagged ‘microfinance’

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 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: Suryoday Microfinance Pvt. Ltd, a Pune-based microfinance institution has successfully closed its Series B equity financing for a primary infusion of INR 175 million (Approx. $3.7m) together by Lok Capital and Aavishkaar Goodwell, as told to Microfinance Focus. As part of the current transaction, Lok has agreed to make a further infusion of INR 35 million ($0.74 million), resulting in a ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 31, 2010: For the rehabilitation and reconstruction of flood affected communities in Pakistan, Kashf Foundation which is a microfinance institution will be setting up a $ 29 million Reconstruction Fund, as told to Microfinance Focus. The primary focus of this 2 year fund will be to rebuild the livelihoods of households along with supporting investments in education through the reconstruction and/or rehabilitation of ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 28, 2010: Bangalore based microfinance institution, Ujjivan and its strategic partner Parinaam Foundation has today refunded Rs.1.11 lakhs to 128 urban poor women customers of Parinaam’s education loan in Bangalore under their Interest Refund Program. The Interest Refund Program was launched in Karnataka by the two organizations to refund the entire interest on ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 26, 2010: Grameen Foundation, a global non-profit organization has recently released a set of standards for strengthening the use of its poverty assessment tool, the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI). The standards are a pre-cursor to a formal certification program the foundation will roll out this fall.   PPI users can apply the standards to assess their use of PPI data and identify ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 25, 2010: The Fifth Central American Microfinance Conference organized by Redcamif – the regional network of microfinance in Central America begins today in Costa Rica. The two day conference titled ‘Crisis:  lessons learned and new strategies’ has emerged as one of the most important event for the microfinance sector in Central America. The conference will raise topics like how to recuperate and learn ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 24, 2010: Barclays Bank India in collaboration with CARE International and Plan International has launched a Rs. 5.46 crore savings-led microfinance programme ‘Banking on Change’ as a part of its corporate social responsibility on Monday. This programme is being carried out by Barclay, the British bank in 11 countries spanning across Asia, Africa and South America, with a total budget of Rs. 70 ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 23, 2010: Non-profit Calvert Foundation, which invests in microfinance, small business development and affordable housing, has received $750,000 grant from the CDFI Fund, a program of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. “We are thrilled to be recognized by the federal government for our important work in driving investment dollars to where it’s needed most – creating jobs and homes for families in ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 21, 2010: Plugging the information gap on financial inclusion laws and regulations, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) has launched a Financial Inclusion Regulation Center, which provides a broad, timely collection of the laws and regulations most relevant to key financial inclusion topics. The Regulation Center includes detailed profiles on nearly 30 countries across the globe. These profiles provide an overview ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 20, 2010: The Latin American and the Caribbean region (LAC), which is home to some of the most evolved microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the world has reported an eroding profitability in the latest Benchmark published by Microfinance Information Exchange for 2009. Although the region’s 343 MFIs who reported to MIX have accumulated a Gross Loan Portfolio of US$ 19.6 billion representing a 25.4% ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 19, 2010: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the Founding Father of microfinance, Prof. Muhammad Yunus will be awarded with the 2010 SolarWorld Einstein Award by SolarWorld AG in September. The professor of economics from Bangladesh and founder of the Grameen Bank will receive the award in recognition of his breakthrough concept ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 18, 2010: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has recently disbursed KGS 112 million in loans to MCC Frontiers and FINCA MCC, the two microfinance institutions in the Kyrgyz Republic for on-lending to smaller microfinance institutions and local entrepreneurs in rural regions of the country. The first, in the amount of KGS 47 million (equivalent to USD 1 million) represents the ... Full story

Microfinance Focus, Aug 17, 2010: Atlanta based 40billion.com, a social funding network for small business entrepreneurs in America, has raised over $25 million in funding requests, says a recent announcement. 40billion.com's platform helps entrepreneurs raise funding more affordably through friends and family than through banks or other traditional financial institutions.  Using proprietary online tools, entrepreneurs build social networks and use these connections to raise capital through ... Full story