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Indonesian start-ups helping to broaden financial inclusion
A string of innovative financial products from Indonesian start-ups are circumventing the traditional payment and investment system, helping to broaden financial inclusion and challenging the established banks.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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How one man wants to lend cash to 500m Chinese and lead a microfinancing revolution
Zane Wang Zhengyu, founder and chief executive of lending company China Rapid Finance (CRF), wants to redraw the mainland's credit landscape.Wang hopes to create the mainland version of the San Francisco-based Lending Club, which offers borrowers funds at rates lower than those charged by credit cards. Ideally, the model could help meet the financing needs of 500 million potential mainland customers, many of them borrowing for the first time.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- microfinance
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Indonesia to Unleash Loan Funds as Micro-lending Rates Cut
Indonesia wants to unleash 30 trillion rupiah ($2.3 billion) of new loans for small businesses and halve some bank micro lending rates to help revive an economy running at its slowest pace in five years.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Habitat Destruction Is Exposing Us to a Dangerous New Form of Malaria
If you’re not a doctor, you probably think of malaria as a single disease. That’s not quite right. There are several parasites that cause what we call malaria—likePlasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale, and Plasmodium malariae—and each brings a slightly different form of the disease. Now, in a northeastern corner of Malaysia, doctors are concerned about the rapid expansion of yet another malaria-inducing parasite named Plasmodium knowlesi. Incidence of the parasite increased tenfold between 2004 and 2011, and many public-health researchers are worried things are going to get worse.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- public health
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Impact Investment Fund launches: a new $100 million socially-conscious Aussie start-up fund
The constrained Australian venture capital industry is about to receive a $100 million infusion earmarked for companies that promise to do good for society or the environment.
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- Impact Assessment
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- impact investing
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Can China’s Financial System Become More Inclusive?
Beijing is trying to make finance accessible to those traditionally denied it, with mixed results.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Foundation Searches for Young Social Entrepreneurs
There are many success stories of social enterprises taking off, but most of these are in Manila. Proponents of a contest seeking to award social entrepreneurs hope to find the next success story in the provinces.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Indonesia Turns to Technology to Build its Banking Sector
Indonesia is hoping to get more of its 250 million citizens using formal financial services, and it’s looking to some of the creative tech startups that are already one step ahead for some assistance.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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