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Getting Real About Innovation: Why Accion’s U.S. Network Made the Leap to Digitize its Lending Operations
Technology can boost small businesses' access to finance, but can also risk trapping them in a cycle of debt. And for lenders serving lower-income entrepreneurs, these risks and rewards are more acute. Gina Harman, CEO of Accion’s U.S. Network, discusses its ambitious efforts to digitize lending operations across its national online platform in this podcast Q&A, exploring how established organizations can adapt to emerging technologies – without compromising their missions.
- Categories
- Finance
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From Haiti to China: 5 Pilots Begin to Reveal Digital Credit’s Uneven Impact
Demand for digital credit is growing in emerging markets, sparking opportunities for providers – and critical questions about its impact on low-income borrowers. CEGA's Digital Credit Observatory awarded five short-term pilot grants to studies in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, India and China, which provided some intriguing answers. Alexandra Wall, Natasha Beale and Carson Christiano of CEGA explore some of the studies' takeaways.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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New Products, New Markets – New Risks? Microfinance Shifts its Gaze to Housing
$2.3 trillion: That's what low-income households are predicted to spend on urban housing by 2025. So it's no surprise that many microfinance providers view housing lending as their next big opportunity for both profit and social impact. But this new focus brings plenty of challenges – and more than a few risks. We explore the implications of this development – a key topic of discussion at the recent European Microfinance Week.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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How small loans can be made cheaper
“Our mothers and sisters who live in villages, whether they are educated or not, have taken a pledge. Twelve lakh people have taken a pledge that they will transact their self-help group-related business cashlessly; they will go with digital transaction, with RuPay cards,” Modi said.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Centrum Capital to acquire FirstRand Bank’s microfinance business in India
As part of starting up, Centrum Capital has executed a definitive agreement to acquire the Indian microfinance business of South Africa-based FirstRand Bank, which currently has around 70,000 customers in the Maharashtra region and employs over 300 people. This is the second lending business the firm has recently entered, following its entry into affordable housing finance at the end of last year.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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Nigeria’s Bank of Industry partners Gates Foundation, CGAP on financial inclusion
The Bank of Industry (BoI), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) have gone into partnership to deepen financial inclusion and poverty eradication in Nigeria.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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When Failure is Hard to Recognize: Facing Hard Truths about Microfinance
After decades of faith in the ability of tiny loans to transform people’s lives, quantitative research has revealed that microfinance rarely lives up to the hype. But in spite of their lackluster impact, microfinance projects have persisted – the question is, why? After seven years of observing various actors throughout the microfinance value chain, Erin Beck, an assistant professor at the University of Oregon, has an answer. She discusses how policymakers, MFI leaders, employees and even customers contribute to microfinance’s persistence.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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The untold story behind IndusInd Bank-Bharat Financial merger
Bharat Financial’s earlier avatar SKS’s quest to become a bank started in right earnest from the day it realized that once small finance banks are in place, it would be difficult to successfully run the microfinance business.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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