 World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) is the leading international trade association and development agency for credit unions. WOCCU promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives around the world to empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services. WOCCU advocates on behalf of the global credit union system before international organizations and works with national governments to improve legislation and regulation. Its technical assistance programs introduce new tools and technologies to strengthen credit unions' financial performance and increase their outreach.
 While it's sometimes hard to quantify success, one thing is certain – the ripple effect and long-term effects of good development work impact more people for generations to come than any of us will know.
 The West is overly discounting Asia's growth potential. Innovation has never been more accessible. We're on the verge of a golden age of innovation. The human side of innovation must be addressed. More focus must go to solving the first mile problem... Written by Scott Anthony from Singapore
 Top emerging economies are forging research collaborations to help the less well-off. The idea that poorer countries should catch up economically with wealthier ones before spending heavily on R&D was challenged by a report released last week. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report contradicts theories widely held by development professionals and international organizations such as the World Bank.
 More than 1.5mn loans worth $831mn have been given out in the past seven years, said the Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA), which was set up by the government in 2003 to coordinate the sector. Thirty years of conflict have shattered Afghanistan’s economy and infrastructure, leaving two-thirds of the roughly 30mn population illiterate and at least a third in dire poverty.
 One of the most popular programs for helping the world's poor has gone sour in India. Microcredit, the practice of making small loans to very poor people, grew into a multibillion-dollar business. But microfinance companies have been accused of predatory lending and collection practices so harsh that they drove some borrowers to suicide. One state government in India has enacted legislation that will, in effect, put the microlenders out of business.
 "Harassment of women and domestic violence goes back to centuries. It continues to be in force today in many parts of the world including Sri Lanka. It must be eliminated at all costs" said Child Development and Women Affairs Minister Tissa Karalliyadde addressing the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) held in Port Macquarie, Australia on the theme 'Prevention of violence against women'.
 In an attempt to revive the crisis struck Microfinance sector, the International Financial Corporation, IFC a private sector arm of the World Bank Group is exploring avenues to facilitate fund flows to MFIs. This is an important development in the wake of the industry suffering continuous setbacks.
 Shanti Microfinance, a not-for-profit organization, is raising a $772,000 (£500,000) fund backed by UK and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The firm has already disbursed £10k (USD) and plans to start its operations in Gujarat before moving to Mumbai next year.
The Golf Environment Organization's GEO Legacy Guidance launched to widespread acclaim following previews at the Asia Pacific Golf Summit in Bangkok and the European Golf Course Owners Association Conference in London.
 The Environmental Economics Unit at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg is being granted SEK 73 million from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), to continue to support six environmental economics research centres in Africa, Central America and China for the period 2011-2014.
 Wokai is an organization that allows people to contribute directly to microfinance institutions in China, which in turn lend the money to entrepreneurs in rural China. It is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, with core operations in Beijing, supported by individual donors, corporate sponsors, fundraising events and grants.
Microfinance has lost its soul. Six fundamental shifts in the practice of microfinance have left it operating more like a for-profit bank and less like an innovative pro-poor movement.
The Lao Securities Exchange is scheduled to start trading the shares of two state enterprises on January 11, state media reports said Wednesday.
Debate over the value of microfinance in the developing world appears to be long overdue. Arguments against microfinance center around the claim that it is a development strategy increasingly forced on the poor, and that those who are claimed to benefit from it the most--poor women--are actually its chief victims. Critics have long sought a platform to reveal the weaknesses and explode the myths supporting microfinance.
Microfinance has come under attack in south Asia. Politicians have lined up to attack the industry – whose practitioners make small loans, generally to impecunious rural borrowers – as a racket that preys on poor people.
Microfinance brings a crucial service to poor people. Rather than being attacked, it should be helped to do an even better job of assisting them to assert their financial autonomy.
China Mobile's Nongxintong - or farming information service - launched four years ago. The company is currently focusing on expanding its delivery in China's west and south-west regions. "Building the mobile network and covering most of the country's administrative villages, we realised that there was only a network signal. In rural areas, this is not enough," explains Liu Jing, a local manager for the service at China Mobile.
 The Board of directors of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) has approved a Microfinance Risk Participation Programme, marking ADB’s first large scale private sector microfinance initiative.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide up to $10 million for a private equity fund that aims to expand microfinance and small bank lending to poor, underserved groups across the region.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is under pressure after critics accused him of misusing development aid. The father of microfinance told SPIEGEL ONLINE the allegations are "a total fabrication."
Microfinance was supposed to mean economic empowerment for the poorest of the poor, many of them female villagers living in India's southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh. Instead, the sector has spiralled into crisis in recent weeks, where the state is blaming 57 recent suicides on aggressive loan collectors.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending $49 million to expand surveillance response systems to help control dengue outbreaks, and prevent the spread of communicable and tropical diseases in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam.
The Second Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Regional Communicable Diseases Control Project, which is an offshoot of the first GMS Regional Communicable Diseases Control Project, will also target improvements in the capacity of health services and communities involved in disease control in border districts of the three countries.
Capping microfinance interest rates will hurt the poor. There are better ways to regulate the industry.
 Rural credit is changing the face of the Chinese countryside. The need for financing in rural areas is growing, but capital is still flowing out of the rural market. The Postal Savings Bank of China has provided us with a case to consider when pondering how rural microfinance can provide a sustainable business model.
WAM began in 2003 after women professionals in the microfinance industry, most of them based in Washington, DC, began meeting, at first informally in each others' homes. This growing group of WAM Founders came together to discuss areas of common concern, to decide if a more formal organization made sense, to explore what such an organization might do to support women who work in the microfinance industry and, ultimately, to support the development of the industry itself. After several months of planning and program design, WAM was formally launched in October 2003. Membership has grown steadily since.
 Claudia McKay and Mark Pickens from CGAP have pulled together a comprehensive global pricing study on banking services targeting poor, unbanked and underbanked people in Africa, Asia and Brazil. The study examines pricing for services targeting unbanked and underbanked poor people in 10 countries.
The conclusion: mobile banking and other forms of branchless banking are cheaper than traditional banking, but the gap between the two may not be as wide as some may think.
The recent controversy surrounding the microfinance sector has entirely eclipsed the fact that it is the first effort in India to have delivered financial services to remote corners of the country in a self-sustaining manner. The stakes are high for India’s poor, and we have to pave the way for orderly growth in the sector. Here is our view on some key issues that have featured in the current debate.
 Probanx Information Systems specializes in development of software for the financial institutions, offering multi-currency and multi-lingual banking systems with a large variety of modules, based on the latest technologies. We install and support turn-key international Banking Software and Microfinance Software solutions for retail banks, commercial banks, Internet banks and microfinance banks.
 The International Financial Corporation (IFC), entering into the World Bank (WB) Group, together with the Financial Commission on Regulation of Mongolia and Micro-Finance Development Fund (MFDF) has organized awareness-raising tour to Mongolia on studying of legislative practice on microfinancing for regulators from Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
US$2.3 trillion has been spent by the global North on international aid in the last five decades. Nevertheless, close to half of the world's population still lives in poverty. One in five live in extreme poverty. Aid is not working as well as it should. Unless we can inject the spirit of innovation into this provision, the extreme poor we try to help in places like Bangladesh will continue to remain poor.
India’s microfinance industry has warned it is being pushed to the brink of collapse, as a result of a bank freeze on credit to microlenders triggered by a political crackdown.
India’s commercial banks, which normally provide about $133m a week in credit to the microloan industry, have frozen those disbursals for the past two weeks, as companies wrestle with a backlash in one of their biggest markets, the state of Andhra Pradesh.
After several years of very high profile attention on mobile money and other branchless banking schemes, we think it’s time to test the hype. Or more accurately, we’ve wanted to for awhile. But acquiring good data is really, really hard. We’ve been unable to say in anything but a fragmented, mostly anecdotal way whether the unbanked really use branchless banking, what they use it for, if it saves them any money, and what more they might want (but aren’t getting yet). Just because we are excited about branchless banking doesn’t mean it is living up to the promises we make on its behalf.
A significant number of people using new technologies such as mobile phones to access financial services in developing countries are completely new clients for the financial services industry, according to new research by CGAP. The growing interest of so-called branchless banking in recent years has, until now, largely lacked data showing whether it delivers on potential to bring the poor into the formal economy.
A new initiative to expand these programs to the broader market called the Small Business Banking Network (SBBN) will launch in November. The SBBN is designed to bolster the capacity and effectiveness of financial institutions to profitably serve small businesses in developing countries, helping to close the gap between microfinance and commercial banking.
Even as the microfinance sector is facing the possibility of new regulations that will reduce interest rates lenders charge in Indian hinterland, perhaps resulting in a drop in margins, rich Indians still feel there is money to be made at least in firms providing services to firms doing business at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’.
Microfinance has had a quick slide down the popularity charts— from being celebrated as a magic wand against poverty to being condemned as a business riddled with loan sharks.
A group of India's largest microfinance institutions filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block strict new regulations laid down by the state of Andhra Pradesh — a crucial market for small loans — after reports that high interest and coercive loan collection by microfinance groups had led to some 30 suicides.
 The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) at Colorado State University provides innovative training in community-based development (online and face-to-face), consultation, evaluation, and project support services for individuals and governmental, international non-governmental, and community-based organizations around the world.
 Village Earth's mission is to help reconnect communities to the resources that promote human well-being by enhancing social and political empowerment, community self-reliance and self-determination.
Rural Finance is about providing financial services for people living in rural areas. This Learning Centre aims to assist organisations in developing countries to build their capacity to deliver improved financial services which meet the needs of rural households and businesses.
The three-day Asian Microfinance Forum 2010 wrapped up bringing to a close three full days of conferences, panel sessions and seminars all of which were well attended by almost 500 delegates from 50 countries who were in Colombo for the event as well as many local industrialists, bankers and other interested parties.
 Newton Microfinance Institution is the leading private financial institution in Lao PDR. Their vision is to make sure that every Lao resident not only has access to but also benefits from the financial blessings globally enjoyed. They are installing Internet banking services to their clients in several languages including Lao, English, french, etc.
Philippines has been ranked second best worldwide in the microfinance business, and the leader in the Asia Pacific region.
Based on a study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the business information arm of The Economist Group that publishes The Economist, the Philippines outperformed Bolivia slipping to third overall.
Three Social Entrepreneurs have been recognized as leading social innovators in Asia during the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, 13-15 September.
Confirmation that Cambodia’s largest micro-lending organisation Prasac will start to accept deposits represents the latest sign the Kingdom’s microfinance sector is booming.
But MFIs need to be weary of straying too far from their original mandate – notably, to financially assist the country’s rural poor.
Bank card issuers will be punished for collecting fees for inter-network ATM internal-network transactions that have not been approved by the State Bank of Viet Nam, said Ho Huu Hanh, a representative of the State Bank’s HCM City branch.
Funds collected through these illegal fees would also be appropriated to the State budget, Hanh warned.
Thirty-five bankers and trainers from 15 institutions in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam yesterday participated in a training programme on building sustainable small and medium-sized banking operations in HCM City.
Highlighting the vast untapped potential of the sector, SBP acting governor said that Pakistan is among the few countries in the world where microfinance activities have been gradually mainstreamed into the formal financial system.
Microfinance doesn’t help the very poor.
While the argument that all the attention the microlending industry attracts sometimes diverts funds from reaching programs that need it more is not new, we were surprised to see it outlined by Vikram Akula, the founder of SKS Microfinance Ltd.
Suntech Power Holdings, the world's leading producer of crystalline silicon solar panels, has been selected to supply 34.5MW of solar panels for the first phase of the largest solar power plant in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Owned and operated by Bangchak Petroleum, and integrated by Solartron, the planned 44MW (38MW AC output capacity) solar power plant will be located just outside of Bangkok and generate decades of renewable energy for the booming metropolis and surrounding areas.
Mobile payment users worldwide are forecast to increase 2.1 percent to 109 million by the end of 2010, a US-based research
firm said in a report.
SKS Microfinance Limited, the largest Micro Finance Institution in India, today announced that its public issue will open on July 28.
A renowned microfinance training centre in Italy will welcome representatives from five Pacific Island countries.
He would have been a hardcore banker had he not branched out to microfinance. And that was because “it is a business with a social mission offering double bottom line satisfaction to all stakeholders”. Udaia Kumar, MD Share Microfin Limited Interviewed by Pranab Ghosh, Hindustan Times.
TATA Consultancy Services Financial Solutions (TCSFS) is a global and innovative company with a strategic focus on the present and future requirements of financial institutions. TCSFS goal is to enable their clients to meet the business challenges of modern-day banking and to achieve and sustain a competitive edge. TATA Consultancy Services acquired the former TKS Group.
The second day of ‘Microfinance Cracking the Capital Market’ Conference began with an insightful perspective on future Institutional Investments in the Indian microfinance space. Victoria White, Vice-President and Director, India, ACCION and Alok Prasad, Country Manager-Microfinance, Citi India welcomed the audience with a brief remark on the need and future prospect of institutional investments which the industry requires.
SAB is a French vendor of core banking solutions with an international presence, mainly in francophile institutions across Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Pacific. Established in 1989, SAB is an independent group that publishes an integrated software package for banking and financial institutions: the SAB solution for front to back office banking operations.
With hundreds of fledgling entrepreneurs ready to change the world and maybe make millions while they do it, the buzz around the microfinance industry looks a bit like the dot-com boom at the end of the ’90s.
What's the impact of microfinance? A question with 150 million answers, one for every client around the world who receives microfinance services.
World leaders put the finishing touches on plans to build a more stable global economy on Sunday but backed away from one-size-fits-all pledges as two years of crisis give way to an uneven recovery.
With our focus so firmly fixed on the tension between the U.S. accent on stimulus and the deficit preoccupations of Canada and Europe, the question of China’s place in the G20 has been pushed a bit to the side of this weekend’s summit.
The G-20 is the premier forum for our international economic development that promotes open and constructive discussion between industrial and emerging-market countries on key issues related to global economic stability. By contributing to the strengthening of the international financial architecture and providing opportunities for dialogue on national policies, international co-operation, and international financial institutions, the G-20 helps to support growth and development across the globe.
Asian currencies dropped this week, led by South Korea’s won, as concern Europe’s debt crisis will worsen outweighed the benefits to the region of China’s decision to end the yuan’s two-year peg.
Helping women from poor households to establish small businesses is the daily work of the Timorese microfinance institution Tuba Rai Metin (TRM). Their belief is that the prosperity of Timor-Leste has to be built upon the prosperity of the most important structure in society, the family unit.
The global micro finance body set up by World Bank has elected India's Vijay Mahajan as Chairman of its Executive Committee.
Microfinance — making tiny loans to poor people or groups of poor people — has soared in India in the past few years. Before long, it could reach more people in India than the regular banking system.
This is an extraordinary story of women's empowerment in rural India. Women in Satara district in Maharashtra run a bank and a B-school successfully.
Sunny Mahant had been working as a product marketing manager for nine years at Cisco when he experienced an epiphany on a trip to India.
On that trip, Mahant and his wife, photographer Geidre Nakutyte, witnessed firsthand the brutish conditions under which very young children work in India, and the extreme poverty suffered by their families. He came home determined to make a difference in the lives of young Indians.
Offbeat financal avenues find buyers slowly but steadily. With the global meltdown behind, European debt crisis ahead, global economists are busy pondering new sectors like microfinance, carbon finance, water credit and so on to find hope for market expansion.
Even as financial inclusion emerges as one of the top goals of government and Reserve Bank of India, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), which are the pioneers of financial inclusion, are finding themselves in a bit of soup, strangely enough for fats growth and for big profits. So are MFIs doing too much too fast?
Sheetal Mehta is founder of Shanti Microfinance, which is a social enterprise charity that provides access to technology and capital for entrepreneurs in slums and villages in Gujarat, India.
Slum-dweller Krustin bin Juri lost everything when floodwaters swept through his home and shop on the banks of Jakarta’s filthy Ciliwung river two years ago.
But when the next flood hits, and it will because Jakarta sees frequent floods in the rainy season, bin Juri may have a modicum of protection thanks to a low-cost insurance policy that he purchased this month.
He is among millions of the world’s poor who are covered for natural disasters by cheap insurance, or microinsurance, as commercial firms recognise that insuring the poor is not just good public relations but also profitable.
Once upon a time, Sumitra used to roam the streets of the Indian city of Ahmedabad, collecting discarded caps which could be recycled and sold back to manufacturers such as Coca-Cola.
The summit will focus on urban poverty by bringing attendees to visit any of the seven leading microfinance organizations in Kenya.
A new microfinance bill that was recently introduced in the Indian Parliament would remove the cap on microloan interest rates. Although there would be no cap on interest rates, the regulatory body would “advise” microfinance institutions to keep rates low and would “closely monitor” them, according to government officials.
Online sites like Babyloan or Kiva have taken the idea of lending small sums to help lift people out of poverty to create a direct personal link between lenders and borrowers.
In Mongolia, a microfinance system supported by The World Bank and its international partners helps create business opportunities in poor rural areas through the Mongolia Microfinance Development Fund and brings development to remote areas that have been severely affected by the global economic downturn.
Shah Mohammad Mir is the director of the Helmand Islamic Investment and Finance Corporation (HIIFC), an Islamic credit union, which makes microloans to farmers and other microentrepreneurs. Some farmers that previously grew poppies with Taliban-provided inputs have used loans to buy their own seeds and other supplies to grow wheat and other food crops. To comply with Shariah, Islamic law, loans do not bear interest but instead are repaid with a 2 percent administrative fee. Mr Mir says that the loans, normally for no more than USD 2,000 each, have enabled over 30 people to leave the Taliban. As a result, Mr Mir has received threatening phone calls and had guns fired outside his home. He left town for a short while, but has returned to operate HIIFC’s three branches, which have lent USD 1 million to 1,441 people since late 2007. Regarding the unrest in his country, Mr Mir says: “If we can get rid of the unemployment that should bring security.”
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 always a room for innovation to be introduced to already existing structures. Though microfinance made some gains in alleviating it but with sufficient services the amount invested lie in the danger of being spent on the items of daily use owing to extreme poverty.
Probanx Information Systems specializes in development of software for the financial institutions, offering multi-currency and multi-lingual banking systems with a large variety of modules, based on the latest technologies. We install and support turn-key international Banking Software and Microfinance Software solutions for retail banks, commercial banks, Internet banks and microfinance banks.
There is a banker who is still feted across the world, collecting accolades and honours wherever he goes. The institution he founded more than 20 years ago is unscathed by the current financial crisis, and his opinion is more sought after than ever before as politicians and economists desperately try to fix our bankrupt system. Muhammad Yunus is to economic development what Nelson Mandela is to world peace.
Women’s World Banking, Ghana, (IWWBG) arguably the most innova¬tive microfinance institution in Ghana has won an award at the recent Women's World Banking Global Network and Capital Markets meeting held in New York.
Microinsurance has been recognized worldwide as a potential instrument for promoting safety nets to extend financial inclusion to poor households. However, contrary to general expectations, micro insurance delivery has not achieved substantial scale as compared to the micro finance movement. Insurers in India operate in a regulatory environment that requires them to achieve priority sector targets and meet rural and social sector obligations. Though, there clearly exists an untapped and largely unexplored market for insurance in India, the ability of risk carriers to operate microinsurance schemes viably is constrained by the lack of reliable data and the absence of alternate means of risk assessment. Adequate emphasis on research and development of suitable risk management systems is critical to make markets work for the poor.
The world's major greenhouse gas emitters gathered in Washington D.C last week, trying to lay the groundwork for a global deal to fight climate change, but progress was limited. The two-day major economies meeting on climate change was meant to pave the way for international talks in Copenhagen in December, seeking to forge a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
During The Aspen Environment Forum Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan presented the King Hussein Leadership Prize which recognizes outstanding leadership in promoting human rights, sustainability and world peace. And the winner was Bob Freling, Executive Director of an American non profit called SELF -- the Solar Electric Light Fund, which has been solar-powering villages around the world.
A hive of social activity: where French entrepreneurs benefit from collective intelligence. After graduating, Charlotte Hochman worked with several grassroots organisations in India and Brazil, one of which was Village Action. She then launched La Ruche, or ‘The Beehive’ in English, a NGO that is open to anyone proposing an innovative solution to a social or ecological challenge...
Grameen Phone and its Village Phone Initiative is akin to a public pay phone microenterprise run by a rural woman. A Grameen Bank borrower uses their loan to become a Grameen Phone microfranchisee. The new business owner gains access to the branding, training, and partners of Grameen Phone. To date there are over 200,000 Village Phone operators in rural areas bringing increased access to regional markets, knowledge, and services to the rural poor.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, known as the "banker to the poor" for making small loans in impoverished countries, is now doing business in the center of capitalism — New York City.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus greets borrowers at a Grameen America open house at St. John's University in New York on Saturday.
The essence of microfinance and its correlation with poverty alleviation was discussed at the inauguration of the international conference on ‘Microfinance for Inclusive Development and Sustainable Growth’, held today at the Centre for Banking Studies, Colombo.
Poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka has been a top priority of governments since Independence itself, said Deputy Governor of Central Bank W.A. Wijewardane, stating that Sri Lanka has achieved a decline in poverty levels from 20% in 2003 to 15% in 2007. “This has been a major feat for Sri Lanka as poverty signifies social harm and impairment. Our top most achievement should be to kill the absolute poverty line in the future,” he said.
“IF WE stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognising them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up.” That “simple proposition” begins a controversial new management book that seems destined to be read not just in boardrooms but also in government offices. “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Eradicating Poverty Through Profits” (Wharton School Publishing), is essentially a rallying cry for big business to put serving the world's 5 billion or so poorest people at the heart of their profit-making strategies.
Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has said that microfinance is an important pillar and integral part of Pakistan’s poverty reduction strategy and the government is making all out efforts to expand its coverage through microfinance banking, microfinance institutions and rural support programme.
JP Laurel Rural Bank is being transformed into a rural bank focused on microfinance
The world’s largest manufacturer of mobile telephones – Nokia is now preparing to enter into the developing rural market in India, seeing that the urban market is getting increasingly concentrated with mobile technology. Anticipating a strong business potential in rural market, Nokia is teaming up with some micro finance institutions to get into the rural arenas.
Aqush.jp has launched Aqush Tomo, a p2p lending service to facilitate loans between friends and family members. Aqush is a service of Exchange Corporation K.K., which states it’s mission as @to leverage innovation and international best practices to pioneer ‘Social’ financial services in Asia. @
Newton Microfinance Institution is the leading private financial institution in Lao PDR. Their vision is to make sure that every Lao resident not only has access to but also benefits from the financial blessings globally enjoyed.
Time Magazine’s annual issue last month listed 10 ideas that are changing the world right now. While they provide interesting information on how the “global economy is being made before our eyes.” Dr Florangel Rosario Braid selected two that are more relevant to Manilla own local economy as we face the threat of economic recession and climate change.
Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd. (FINO), a Mumbai-based biometric-enabled smartcard solutions provider, engaged in providing financial, non-financial products and services to the unbanked rural masses has enrolled 5 million customers to avail them basic banking and insurance services.
The man who helped Thailand survive the Asian financial crisis says reforms a decade ago have made the region's banks better able to weather the global economic downturn. Former Finance Minister Tarrin Nimmanahaeminda also gave his endorsement to banking-reform programs planned by the United States and G-20 nations.
Jamie Bedson, lead coordinator at the Banking With The Poor Network Secretariat, in Singapore, told Connect Asia's Sen Lam that about 91 microfinance funds lend out money across Asia.
Cambodian microfinance institutions say economic crisis is taking its toll on the MFI sector and increasing the number of nonperforming loans to more than 1 percent. Microfinance lenders say the economic crisis is leading to higher rates of nonperforming loans in 2009. Last year, bad loans were just 0.67 percent of total lending.
Gramalaya, in association with WaterPartners International, USA, WaterAid, UK, and Arghyam, Bangalore, organized World Water Day 2009, which is held at its National Institute of Water and Sanitation (NIWAS) Training Centre in Tamil Nadu.
An educational initiative between Rice University computer scientists and Indian educators will enable schools in rural India to be some of the first to benefit from Rice's revolutionary, low-energy computer chips. Rice's Krishna Palem, the inventor of the energy-stingy chips, said his team is creating a solar-powered electronic slate, or I-slate, an electronic version of the blackboard slates used by many Indian schoolchildren.
Pfizer Inc and PlaNet Finance announced that they will team up to conduct an in-depth research project on the healthcare needs of the working poor in China. The study will examine the availability and existing sources of medicines, patient purchasing patterns, and the level of access to medical services. The study ultimately aims to help both organizations identify models that may enhance and expand access to medicines and healthcare services for the working poor in China.
The head of China's central bank proposed Monday a plan to displace the American dollar as the world's standard and replace it with a global reserve currency operated from the International Monetary Fund.
First Global Investments Holdings (FGIH) recently launched its Islamic Microfinance programme which was targeted at alleviating poverty in the suburbs of Colombo.
SKS Microfinance, the largest microfinance provider in India in terms of assets, is eyeing China as its next destination for expansion. The export-driven Chinese economy is reeling under the impact of recession due to the global meltdown. Several vocationally-trained employees have already suffered job losses.
Microfinance in China is poised for a significant expansion as the government, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and commercial banks begin to explore ways to provide the country's most impoverished people with greater access to credit.
According to Bai Chengyu, secretary general of the China Association of Microfinance, after 10 years of development, microcredit has entered a transition phase and is now moving "from experiment to large-scale commercial development."
Praseeda, honoured for her activism and microfinance work with India’s destitute women, won the award alongside a myriad of Indian film stars, doctors, corporate achievers, authors, artists and healthcare workers.
Microfinance is helping people escape poverty across the developing world. Are China’s would-be entrepreneurs getting the same help?
Grameen Foundation support microfinance programs that enable the poor, mostly women, to lift themselves out of poverty and make better lives for their families. To do this, Grameen Foundation partner with a worldwide network of microfinance institutions.
Welcome to this blog about Microfinance, Innovations and Sustainable Development
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