You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2010.
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
“Client Protection – A Boon or a Burden for MFIs?” – that was the topic of an interview with CGAP’s Kate McKee in the latest newsletter of the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR).
Read the full interview here (interview begins on page 6 of the PDF) >
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
From the American Banker, “Microlender Accion USA Avoids ‘Antipoverty’ Pitch”…
As the head of one of the nation’s largest microlenders, Gina Harman is leading the charge to expand the availability of credit to underserved communities in this country.
Just don’t say she’s helping poor people.
“It is true that microfinance is a means of lifting people out of poverty, but it, in and of itself, will not get the job done,” Harman, the president and chief executive of the nonprofit microlender Accion USA, said in an interview last month. “My concern is that this rush of public awareness does not make us yesterday’s fad. The American population can be a little fickle, so I don’t want to be fashionable. I want to endure.”
Read the entire article >
>Posted by Anita Gardeva and David Levai
At the Center for Financial Inclusion, we are excited about the idea of building financial sectors that can serve and include the estimated 2 billion people who currently have no access to formal financial services.
We are excited because we know how such access can create life-improvements even for the very poor. From managing vulnerability through savings or insurance products, to taking advantage of entrepreneurial opportunities through working capital loans, to safely receiving remittances—these small benefits can leverage real-life transformations for families in the long-run.
Throughout our work in the past year, we have spent much time pondering questions related to financial inclusion such as: How many people do not have access to a bank account? What other services need to be developed to help the poor better manage their resources? How can the provision of financial services be improved so that the poor can make the most of these services? What are the barriers to using financial services at the bottom of the pyramid? Who is best equipped to extend quality financial services at scale to those who currently lack them?
In working through these questions we have come to realize that there is a gap in today’s ongoing discussions about financial inclusion: what exactly do we mean by “financial inclusion”? Is it the same as “banking the unbanked”? Are high-potential-for-scale models such as mobile banking the solution?
In an effort to bring together the various conversations, the Center has been working on a cohesive, concrete, and comprehensive definition of financial inclusion that we would like to share with you:
Full financial inclusion is a state in which all people who can use them have access to a full suite of quality financial services, provided at affordable prices, in a convenient manner, and with dignity for the clients. Financial services are delivered by a range of providers, most of them private, and reach everyone who can use them, including disabled, poor, rural, and other excluded populations. Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
The European Microfinance Platform has just posted the video recording of the roundtable on client protection that took place during the 2009 European Microfinance Week.
See the video >
>Posted by Charlotte Connors
Get Smart is the title of today’s Op-Ed in Forbes.com about the Microfinance Industry’s proactive effort to ensure that clients are the driving force of their business. Co-authored by our own Beth Rhyne and Smart Campaign Steering Committee member Asad Mahmood of Deutsche Bank, the article demonstrates how a growing industry can mobilize around an important issue.
> Posted by Anita Gardeva
In our quickly-commercializing microfinance industry, we might think that the role of public funds is becoming obsolete. But as governments increasingly take interest in microfinance, they still have opportunities to play important roles. To discuss this, last week an all-star panel of microfinance experts testified in the first of a series of microfinance-related testimonies before the House Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade. The panel included Wagane Diouf of Mecene Investment (formerly Africap), Susy Cheston of Opportunity, Elisabeth Rhyne of the Center for Financial Inclusion, Robert Annibale of Citibank, Damian von Stauffenberg of MicroRate, and Don Terry, former head of the IDB’s Microfinance Investment Fund.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Meeks (D-NY) put this question to the panelists: How can public and private funds most effectively promote financial inclusion for all? The panelists’ recommendations were unanimous: Public funds should go where private funds cannot or do not dare to go. Funding “trophy” MFIs—as Mr. von Stauffenberg put it when referring to tier-one, highly-successful MFIs—would not only be a poor use of tax dollars but could also have a “toxic” effect on the recipients.
The panelists pointed out that there are a number of ways that public funds can be used that could accelerate progress towards full financial inclusion, including: Read the rest of this entry »
Facebook
Twitter
Recent Comments