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A Tale of Four IPOs: Is Public Investment in Microfinance Becoming OK Again?
Initial public offerings have long been a controversial topic in microfinance, and rightly so. The early IPOs of Compartamos and SKS Microfinance made a lot of money for investors and turbocharged the sector's growth, but also sparked hyper commercialization and debt crises that rocked the industry. But last year, two Indian MFIs had successful IPOs that have garnered a much more positive reception. We spoke with Daniel Rozas of the European Microfinance Platform and Anna Kanze of Grassroots Capital Management about how these four offerings differed, and what they could mean for the future of public investment in microfinance, in this podcast.
- Categories
- Investing
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TODAY at 10:00 AM EST: Twitter Chat on IPOs in Microfinance – Join at #MFICHAT
NextBillion is excited to announce our first-ever Twitter chat, which will take place at 10:00 AM EST on Jan. 30. The topic, Initial Public Offerings in microfinance, tends to inspire heated opinions, so the chat will follow a quasi-debate format, with Anna Kanze of Grassroots Capital Management, Daniel Rozas of the European Microfinance Platform, and Chuck Waterfield, formerly of MicroFinance Transparency, providing contrasting views. You can follow the conversation at #MFICHAT.
- Categories
- Investing
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Fintech or Die: Five Ways Microfinance Can (and Must) Respond to the Digital Age
MicroSave founder Graham Wright hasn't been shy in criticizing the ways lenders are currently leveraging fintech to serve low-income clients. But his views on its potential in microfinance are far more bullish than this criticism might suggest. "Very soon, if MFIs don't develop a strategy and implement fintech behind that strategy, I think they will simply become irrelevant and slowly but surely shrink and die," he said in this frank video Q&A.
- Categories
- Technology
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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Posts of 2016
Congratulations to the three winners of NextBillion’s “Most Influential Post of 2016” contest. Each winner brought a unique mixture of topicality, engaging writing and thought-provoking analysis to their posts, which tackled some of the most important issues facing the social business world in the past year.
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- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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10 Developments Shaping Smallholder Finance in Africa
This post tackles a tough question: How do we reduce the risk of agricultural activities so that financial institutions will provide loans to small farmers in developing countries? It proved to be the most popular article on NB in August, and thus earned a spot in our annual Most Influential Post contest. We're publishing a new entrant in the contest every day through Jan. 2 and we'll announce the winner Jan. 4.
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- Agriculture
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Summer of Impact Investing: ImpactAlpha Flags 10 Recent Developments Shaping the Sector
In July, NextBillion launched a collaboration with ImpactAlpha to highlight coverage of the top stories, leaders and trends in impact investing. This article, which appeared on July 12, proved to be the most popular post that month, and is entered in this year's Most Influential Post of 2016 contest. We're publishing a new entrant in the contest every day through Jan. 2; be sure to vote for your favorite.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Opportunity International and MyBucks: A Dangerous Partnership Decision?
Long-time microfinance watchdog Chuck Waterfield expresses serious concerns about the ramifications of Opportunity International's sale of six microfinance banks to the fintech company MyBucks – both for the clients of those banks as well as for the broader microfinance industry. This post, which originally appeared on June 21, was the most popular post on NB that month, and is part of our Most Influential Post of 2016 contest.
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- Uncategorized
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The Surprising Reason Why Savings Boosts Income: New Research Reveals an Unexpected Benefit of Financial Inclusion
Make it easier to save, and people will save more. This seems straightforward and holds true for customers in rich and poor countries alike. Make it easier to save, and people will save more and earn more. This sounds a little less intuitive, especially if you posit that this increase in income will happen almost immediately. Yet this is exactly what researchers have found - and the reason why is surprising.
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- Uncategorized