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KCB, Safaricom Lower Mobile Loans Interests After COFEK Pressure
KCB and its mobile money partner Safaricom have finally bowed to pressure to lower mobile money interest rates.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- lending
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White House: U.S. to Support $10 Million in Loans to Myanmar Small Businesses
At the invitation of President Barack Obama, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, is on an official visit to Washington, D.C. in September 2016. During the visit, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President Obama held a meeting on September 14 in the White House and adopted this joint statement.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- lending
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Fighting Poverty Through … Car Title Loans? A Q&A with Finova CEO Greg Keough
The words "car title loan" are usually associated with cycles of debt and repossessed vehicles rather than any positive social impact. But Finova, a Florida-based startup, hopes to change that image and disrupt the $5.3 billion emergency cash lending industry by providing un- and under-banked people in the U.S. with access to fairly priced loans, while improving their credit scores and helping them get out of debt. We spoke with Greg Keough, Finova's CEO, in this Q&A.
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- Uncategorized
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India’s Microfinance Industry Clocked 60% Growth in Fiscal 2016
After years of subdued growth, the Indian microfinance (MFI) industry expanded more than 60% to Rs54,329 crore in 2015-16 compared to the previous year, according to a report prepared by Sa-Dhan, the self regulatory organisation of MFIs.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Report: Islamic Finance Will Shoot Up to $6.5 Trillion by 2020
The Global Islamic Financial system is multiplying on a fast track basis, and will touch $6.5 trillion by 2020. This is projected by the International Financial Service Board. The volume expanded from a meager $150 billion in 1990 to $ 1.8 trillion in 2015, the board reported.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
- Tags
- Islamic finance, lending
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Mixed Reactions in Ghana Over Interest Payments on Mobile Money
Customers of mobile money services have expressed mixed reactions to the payments of interests, a day after the process started.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Microfinance Business Model: Enduring Subsidy and Modest Profit
Microfinance institutions aim to serve customers ill-served by traditional commercial banks and thus the associated business model is challenging by definition. And yet the industry has achieved impressive scale reaching 211 million customers globally in 2013. Paradoxically, recent evidence suggests that the benefits of microcredit to borrowers may be modest. For example, six prominent randomized controlled trials found small impacts of access to microcredit on the incomes and consumption levels of marginal borrowers, though the studies found some “potentially important” (though modest) impacts on “occupational choice, business scale, consumption choice, female decision power, and improved risk management.” (Banerjee et al., 2015, p. 14).
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- Uncategorized
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India’s Microfinance Sector Sees 29% Rise in Loan Disbursements in First Quarter
Microfinance industry has witnessed 29 per cent growth in loan disbursements during the first quarter of 2016-17, a report says.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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