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What Do We Really Know About Microfinance’s Impact?
August, 31 2009
Washington, D.C., United States - Few doubt that financial services have helped some poor people permanently improve their circumstances. What’s unclear is whether microfinance reduces poverty on average
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Microfinance: Lessons from the Field
August, 27 2009
Netherlands - When President Barack Obama recently awarded the Medal of Freedom to Muhammad Yunus, he drew attention to microfinance once again. Fittingly, Obama's questions on microfinance focussed on the impact and benefit of microfinance to the poor, in the context of the financial crisis
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Malaysia: Bright Outlook for Micro Credit, Say Banks
August, 26 2009
Petaling Jaya, Malasyia - Malaysian banks are projecting a bright outlook ahead for micro credit after the segment registered a strong performance in the first six months of this year, with the sector seen as less affected by the economic slowdown and under-served with rising demand
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India: Banks May See Rise in NPAs from Micro-finance
August, 25 2009
Bangalore, India - With the monsoon in deficit in most parts of the country, public sector banks have braced themselves for a rise in stressed accounts (delays in repayments of principal and/or interest). Top bank officials, however, said that stressed accounts are not necessarily going to be from farm loans or crop loans.
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Froth at The Bottom of the Pyramid
August, 25 2009
London, United Kingdom - Is microfinance going the same way as subprime mortgages?
The notion, popularised by C.K. Prahalad’s best-seller, “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, that poor people should be seen as potentially profitable customers rather than mere charity cases, has caught on fast in the past few years. Finding profitable ways to meet the needs of poor people, the idea goes, would not only empower them by making them customers rather than supplicants, it would also attract far more capital than would ever be forthcoming from charity. For the providers of this capital, catering to the bottom of the pyramid promised to be good for the soul as well as the wallet
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Yemen Network for Microfinance to Be Set up
August, 24 2009
Sana'a,Yemen - Social Fund for Development (SFD) and United Nation Development Program (UNDP) have held a meeting here to establish Yemen network for microfinance in Yemen
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India: Microfinance Firms to Set up Credit Bureau
August, 23 2009
Hyderabad, India - Microfinance companies are planning to set up a credit bureau to facilitate smooth disbursal of loan to the needy sections of the society. Hyderabad-based SKS Microfinance, the largest player in the segment in terms of assets, is playing a key role in this regard
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Pakistan: Microfinance Industry Determined to Meet Target
August, 22 2009
Islamabad, Pakistan - The microfinance industry is determined to meeting the target of 50 percent growth given to it by the government for the current financial year, said CEO of Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) Syed Mohsin Ahmed, while speaking at a roundtable discussion on Friday
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Microfinance Sector Responds to WSJ Article
August, 20 2009
Washington D.C, United States - The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently published an article hinting at a credit crisis in Indian microfinance. The article, based on the observations of its correspondent in a slum in rural India,has attracted sharp criticism from the microfinance community. Unitus, SKS Microfinance, Ujjivan, Grameen Foundation and Microplace have posted open letters to WSJ condemning the articl
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India: Nokia on a Roll in Rural India; to Use Microfinance for Purchases
August, 19 2009
New Delhi, India - There is a popular saying that necessity is the mother of invention and day in day out one hears of the companies rolling out innovative schemes to meet the challenges thrown by economic slowdown.Mobile telephony is spreading its wings far and wide with thrust now on expanding to rural areas
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Balkan Loan Guarantors Struggle to Pay Others' Debts
August, 17 2009
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina - When Alma, a Bosnian single mother of two, agreed to act as a loan guarantor for a colleague, she never imagined the day would come when she would actually have to pay the debt
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India: Microfinance Sector Losing Sheen Due to High Valuations
August, 17 2009
Mumbai, India - The microfinance sector, which accounted for 40 per cent of all private equity deals in the country in the past 18 months, seems to have lost its charm. As valuations in the sector have skyrocketed, investors now fear a bubble and are approaching the sector cautiously
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Compartamos Banco Issues Long-Term Debt
August, 17 2009
Mexico City, Mexico - Banco Compartamos, S.A., Institucion de Banca Multiple informs that the Bank issued Ps. 1,000 million (US$77 m) in the local debt capital markets, as a result of the reopening of the Local Bank Bond issuance, ('Certificados Bursatiles Bancarios'), COMPART 09; this amount will be added to the Ps. 500 million (US$38 m) issued on July 20, 2009 to total Ps. 1,500 million (US$115 m). This issuance has a tenor of 3 years at an interest rate of TIIE plus 200 pbs.
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Cambodia Joins Microloan Clean-Up
August, 14 2009
Phnom Pen, Cambodia - Impoverished Cambodia has emerged as a global microfinance leader, becoming the first Asian nation to hold lenders accountable to their original mission of poverty reduction. If a new global initiative aimed at promoting greater transparency over microfinance institutions (MFIs) recently launched here gains traction, the multi-billion dollar industry could be set for a shake-out.
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India: A Global Surge in Tiny Loans Spurs Credit Bubble in a Slum
August, 13 2009
Ramanagaram, India - A credit crisis is brewing in "microfinance," the business of making the tiniest loans in the world.
Microlending fights poverty by helping poor people finance small businesses -- snack stalls, fruit trees, milk-producing buffaloes -- in slums and other places where it's tough to get a normal loan. But what began as a social experiment to aid the world's poorest has also shown it can turn a profit.
That has attracted private-equity funds and other foreign investors, who've poured billions of dollars over the past few years into microfinance world-wide.The result: Today in India, some poor neighborhoods are being "carpet-bombed" with loans, says Rajalaxmi Kamath, a researcher at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore who studies the issue. In India, microloans outstanding grew 72% in the year ended March 31, 2008, totaling $1.24 billion, according to Sa-Dhan, an industry association in New Delhi
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For Global Investors, 'Microfinance' Funds Pay Off - So Far
August, 13 2009
New York, USA - The $30 billion industry, partly made up by small lenders on the ground financed by bigger microfinance investment funds, has been expanding its lending at a 40% to 50% annual pace over the past five years, according to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, a research institute hosted at the World Bank. Those microfinance funds have returned 4.47% for investors the past 12 months, according to a benchmark index, compared with a 22% loss by the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index
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Rwanda: BNR Liquidates Urunana Microfinance
August, 11 2009
Kigali, Rwanda - Claudine Zaninka the Executive secretary of Association of Micro Finance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR) told Business Times that BNR is also in the process of liquidating three more microfinance institutions that have run bankrupt
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Gates Foundation Helps Poor Save Money, Open Accounts
August, 11 2009
Seattle, USA - Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, wants to provide the poor with a safe place to put their money. The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $350 million toward projects that let the planet’s poor who have no access to banking keep cash deposits via their local post office, lottery outpost, or cellphone account.
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India: Grama Vidyal Micro Finance to raise Rs 100 cr
August, 11 2009
Chennai, India - Tiruchy-based non-banking finance company (NBFC) Grama Vidiyal Micro Finance (GVMFL) is planning to raise around Rs 100 crore (USD 21 million) by way of non-convertible debentures (NCD) over the next three months. The money will be utilised to support company’s expansion plan, said S Devaraj, chairman and managing director, GVMFL
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Cambodia: Micro-Loans Decreasing in Slow Economy
August, 04 2009
Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Outstanding debt for microfinance loans dipped slightly in the first half of the year, with less people borrowing in a slow economy, according to a national group of microfinance lenders
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0.12% · 
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