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Behind Credit Suisse’s foray into microlending to the global poor
In its early days, Grameen Bank put microfinance on the map by making tiny loans to communities of female small-business owners who put social pressure on one another to repay the loans. Microfinance has come a long way since then. Today, data-enabled microloans are made to small-business owners, farmers and consumers all over the world, often through smartphones and loan officers wielding iPads.
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- Uncategorized
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The Long Game: How Developing Countries Can Get Microfinance Right
In developing economies such as Myanmar, microfinance is often viewed as a means for lifting people out of poverty. As of 2015, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) comprised 99% of the country’s businesses, and many of those are micro-businesses.
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- Uncategorized
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Return on Equity for Indian Microfinance Companies to Turn Negative in FY 2018, says Rating Agency
The rating agency expects net interest margins for micro finance companies to decline to 80 to 100 basis points. Operating expenses are also likely to increase due to investments to be made on information technology and collections infrastructure by most players.
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- Region
- South Asia
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- microfinance
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Study finds microfinance can help, even if goals aren’t met
"We can't just think about what the projects are doing for people but should also examine what people do for projects," Beck said. "We need to look at how policies get transformed on the ground."
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
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Enhancing Access to Finance for Women Entrepreneurs – What Should Financial Institutions Do?
IFC determined that 70 percent of women entrepreneurs are un(der)served and face a USD $300 billion annual credit deficit. Anup Singh and Christine Wanjiru Gachui of MicroSave make the case for banks extending credit to women, who end up being roughly twice as profitable for them as men.
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- Social Enterprise
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The Future of Microfinance is Mobile: FinTech Resolves Three Key Obstacles of Lending to the Unbanked
The microfinance industry has arrived at a new inflection point, according to Frederic Nze, CEO and founder of U.K.-based digital microlender Oakam. Those businesses that are slow to embrace the transformative power of smartphone technology will feel the full force of disruption over the next decade while access to fair, affordable retail financial services will flourish for consumers and small enterprises the world over.
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- Finance, Technology
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Business co-financing: an alternative approach to realize SDG1
There is significant interest in the donor community in using private sector partnerships to help realise SDG1. Such partnerships have typically focused on donors providing funds to a business. Businesses are asked to put forward a new business activity which will increase household incomes.
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- Investing
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Want to Boost Financial Inclusion? Pay Interest on Mobile Money
E-money has been the principal means of increasing access to financial inclusion. Yet most accounts in emerging markets are used only to receive government payments that are then quickly withdrawn as cash. Ross P. Buckley, Louise Malady and Cheng-Yun Tsang say that one way to tackle this problem, and to promote financial inclusion, is to pay interest on e-money.
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- Uncategorized
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