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Banks Get Better Access To Tap Micro Segment
The newly launched branchless banking regulation will enable banks to expand their financial services to disadvantaged and low-income segments at affordable costs, a senior official of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) has said.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Roadmap: Microfinance Industry Eyes 10m Customers By 2018
Perhaps this is the reason why Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) Chairman Nadeem Hussain believes that an impressive growth of 20-25% per annum for the past many years has still not made the country’s microfinance industry ‘relevant’ in the fight against poverty.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Finance: Egypt’s Small Borrowers Have Big Potential
A new law permitting non-bank for-profit lending institutions may unleash a revolution in microfinance by allowing more actors and innovators to get involved.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
- Tags
- microfinance
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NBFCs say Reserve Bank of India’s new rules will work against financial inclusion, drive towards unscrupulous moneylenders
On a typical day, Rohit Bokhare makes about Rs 800 taking passengers in his Mahindra Xylo between Saki Naka in Andheri and Adlabs Imagica on the Mumbai-Pune expressway in Raigad district. The 51-year-old defaulted on repayment of the loan he took to purchase the utility vehicle for four months, which led his financier to come inquiring. Shriram Transport Finance, the non-bank finance company that financed the vehicle, last week found his Xylo lying in a garage for repair for 20-25 days, blocking his regular cash flow. To top it up, Bokhare had a repair bill of Rs 20,000-25,000. He couldn't pay the EMIs in the previous months because of family exigencies.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Finance Minister Will Have A Golden Moment To End Financial Repression
As I sit down to write this, a letter comes to my desk. Handwritten by a 90-year-old man, the letter seeks help from Mint’s insurance expert in resolving a fraud carried out by an insurance company agent who sold a policy for his grand-daughter, changing her status from a US citizen to a non-resident Indian and promising returns in dollars.
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- public policy, regulations
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Kenya: Equity’s SIM Technology to Go Live By March – James Mwangi
EQUITY Bank plans to officially launch its mobile money platform Equitel - the trading brand of its telecoms subsidiary Finserve Africa - next quarter, chief executive James Mwangi said yesterday.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- mobile finance
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USAID Seeks Help From ‘Maker Movement’ in Ebola Outbreak
On a recent Friday, several inventors gathered in downtown Washington with suitcases and coolers full of prototypes designed to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Merck Partners With NewLink To Speed Up Work On Ebola Vaccine
It's now Goliath versus Goliath in the quest for an Ebola vaccine.Until now, the two leading candidates for a vaccine to protect against the Ebola virus were being led by global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline on the one hand, and a tiny company in Ames, Iowa, that was virtually unknown, on the other.
- Categories
- Health Care
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