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> Posted by Center Staff
This latest “Top Picks of the Microfinance Blogosphere” swoops in for a closer look at spurious links between energy drinks and microfinance, examines ways of opening up impact investing to the masses, maps out Lebanese microfinance, and more.
- “Why is it illegal for me to invest even $100 in the business of my choice?” asks a post by Nilima Achwal on the NextBillion blog. “SOCAP11: Breaking Down Barriers to People Powered Capital” dives deep into “the democratization of impact investing.”
- “While the microfinance sector in Lebanon is growing, it is still relatively small in respect to the unmet need throughout the country,” writes Jonathan Bloom in his post “Passport Series: Lebanon: Part 2: Microfinance” on the Kiva.org blog. He takes a look at the big picture of Islamic banking to contextualize his observations about the work taking place on the ground.
- Five young people of the African Leadership Academy (ALA) “interviewed their peers within their countries to solicit views on a number of questions about education, careers, financial services, leadership and entrepreneurship,” Reeta Roy recounts in “Managing Life Transitions” on The MasterCard Foundation blog. The post offers up the pivotal points that go with these peers’ coming of age, as part of efforts to answer the wider question: “How do we prepare young people for a lifetime of transitions?” Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Center Staff
The Center for Financial Inclusion today releases “Weathering the Storm: Hazards, Beacons, and Life Rafts,” which explores the crisis-management experiences of ten MFIs in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
The new white paper, which was written by Daniel Rozas and sponsored by Calmeadow, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse, maps out the ways in which MFIs most commonly get in trouble and offers a blueprint for sound management and crisis control.
Rozas’ new Microfinance Focus blog series, which is largely based on the white paper, will examine the many facets of risk in microfinance. As he notes in his introduction to the series, some of the MFIs “were able to execute successful turnarounds, while others failed outright, but in the process they all left behind a set of valuable lessons for the rest of the industry.”
Today’s post, “Part 1: Bring Microfinance into Politics,” begins:
It seems wherever you turn these days, politics is getting into microfinance. In Andhra Pradesh, the state government exercised its prerogative to kill off an entire industry. Next door in Bangladesh, Prime Minister Hasina decided to hound Yunus out of Grameen Bank, no matter the cost. The No Pago (No Pay) movement in Nicaragua counted on the support of the country’s president. What’s the industry to do in the face of such onslaught? Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Julie Shea
As investors increasingly seek out social impact investing opportunities, microfinance continues to present an attractive opportunity for achieving double bottom line goals.
However, some countries are way ahead of the pack in terms of their social impact investing efforts. Investing in microfinance has gained particular traction in certain European countries, specifically the Netherlands and Switzerland, while investors in the US and UK have been less responsive to microfinance investment opportunities.
One example of social investing in microfinance coming out of the Netherlands is the Dutch Triodos Bank, which as of December 2009 had 236 million euros under management in its four microfinance funds. Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Center Staff
The Council of Microfinance Equity Funds (CMEF) is proud to issue its latest paper, “Growth in Commercial Microfinance: 2005-2008.”
This work by Preetesh Kantak illustrates the significant changes in the commercial microfinance industry over the past four years. Traditionally, growth studies, such as MicroRate’s annual microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) survey, have focused on growth in the assets of MIVs. This growth has been phenomenal, and of course strongly influences the MFIs in which they invest. The “Growth in Commercial Microfinance” series, of which this is the third publication, dissects and clarifies growth in the MFIs themselves – the actual investment opportunity-set. With this study, CMEF gauges the opportunities available to investors in MFIs.
The first study of this series, published in 2004, focused on the transformation process of NGOs and start-up MFIs into regulated, for-profit entities. A large part of this effort was the enumeration of guiding corporate governance principles and the impact that this new business model had on the sustainability of the institutions and industry. The second study, published in 2006, examined industry growth in the preceding two years, and explored the distribution of MFIs, borrowers and depositors by region.
In this latest installment, the author first analyzes the internal, “organic” growth of MFIs presented in the 2006 study. The report explores the increasing and more pervasive efforts at financial intermediation and how the growth of saving products have matched, if not exceeded, the growth of loan products. Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Kanika Metre
Yesterday, ACCION International announced that it will serve as the official sponsor of a new conference examining the latest microfinance investment strategies. The conference, ‘Microfinance for Institutional Investors,’ will be held in Washington, DC from September 21-23.
In addition, ACCION will be sponsoring a book-signing breakfast at the conference, on Tuesday morning, September 22, at which Elisabeth Rhyne, author and managing director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION, will highlight new case studies from her recently-published Microfinance for Bankers and Investors.
Click here, to read the official press release.
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
The next stop in Elisabeth Rhyne’s book tour will be at the Microfinance Club of New York THIS Thursday. Come hear her talk about Microfinance for Bankers and Investors…
When: Thursday, July 30, 6:30-8:00pm
Where: Deutsche Bank, 60 Wall Street, 47th Floor, New York, NY 10005
The event is free to MFCNY members, $10 for everyone else. For more information and to RSVP, click here.
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
Elisabeth Rhyne
Last week the Center for Financial Inclusion hosted a book discussion with author, and our own fearless leader, Elisabeth Rhyne. Following, I had the opportunity to get her thoughts on some of the book’s main themes and lessons…
Question: What was your purpose for writing the book?
Elisabeth Rhyne: The purpose was to attract the private sector to become involved in inclusive finance.
Over the last 20 years, microfinance has proven that microfinance is a viable business proposition. I spent most of my career promoting this idea myself. We started with microcredit, provided by a small, close-knit community of institutions. Then, adding savings and turning NGOs into regulated microfinance institutions, we evolved into microfinance. Today, we are taking the next broader step, to financial inclusion—pursuing the proposition that all low-income individuals should have access to a suite of high-quality financial services. I believe that in order for this to happen we need to move from a narrow view of microfinance into one where private sector players have a role and a responsibility. Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Kanika Metre
We just stumbled upon this blog post at myKRO.org on a recent interview with Silicon Valley Microfinance Network‘s Interim Executive Director, April Newman. Check it out to learn more about why the Silicon Valley is so significant for Microfinance and what work the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network has been up to!
The Bay Area and Silicon Valley have the technology, expertise, and venture capital of few other places in the world. Social entrepreneurship is quite vibrant in the Bay Area as well. If you think about MicroPlace or Kiva, they were both born here and that doesn’t seem to be a coincidence because they bring together elements of investing, technology, social entrepreneurship and microfinance.
To read more, click here.
If you’re going to be in the Bay Area this September, be sure to keep on the look out for an upcoming book event hosted by the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network featuring Elisabeth Rhyne and her latest book, Microfinance for Bankers and Investors!
> 
Posted by Kanika Metre
Last Friday, MicroCapital published a blog post about a panel discussion on client protection that took place during a conference recently held by Hanson Wade in London titled “Investments in Microfinance: Surviving the Liquidity Crisis & Ensuring Sustainable Growth.” The panel on client protection was led by Elisabeth Rhyne, managing director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International, and Kenan Crnkic, managing director of Prizma Mikro, an MFI headquartered in Sarajevo.
The MicroCapital post provides an overview of Ms. Rhyne’s discussion on the significance of client protection in microfinance, the value of avoiding over-indebtedness, the need for more industry dialogue and consensus building, and the purpose of the Center for Financial Inclusion’s Campaign for Client Protection. To read the full MicroCapital post, click here.
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
The 2009 Microfinance Banana Skins Report has been published by the London-based Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CSFI). The report is sponsored by Citi and CGAP, with the Council for Microfinance Equity Funds (CMEF) serving as a member of the steering committee.
This year’s report reflects the fundamental shift in the sector risk landscape, as perceived by participants, since the 2008 report. The global economic and financial crisis of the past year has brought to the forefront risks of credit quality, liquidity and funding that are commanding the attention of investors.
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