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This Brief provides a quick look at the growing use of banking agents to extend financial services to low-income and poor people.
Microinsurance is growing increasingly popular among donors as a way to help poor people manage risks and reduce their vulnerability. This Brief addresses how donors can support microinsurance efforts.
This Brief discusses the various issues that should be considered when estimating demand for microloans.
This Brief discusses the industry's growing interest in social performance and
new advances in measuring social performance and developing guidelines and tools for reporting.
CGAP and Grameen Foundation recently conducted a survey of MFI managers to better understand MFI capital structure decision-making processes in the face of
expanding financing options. This Brief summarizes the study's findings and makes recommendations about ways we can work toward optimizing MFI balance
sheets.
Foreign capital investment in microfinance is surging. Cross-border investment has more than tripled in the last two years to reach US$1.4 billion in 2006.The Changing Landscape of MIVs In the past two years, MIVs have grown in
Donors support many community-managed loan funds (CMLFs) often designed as components of larger projects. Unlike microfinance institutions (MFIs) with professional staff, CMLFs rely on group members themselves to manage the funds. CMLFs can be attractive alternatives for areas and populations that are too expensive for formal MFIs to reach. Savings-based models have experienced promising results, but funding CMLFs with external capital at the outset almost always leads to poor repayment rates and fund failure.
Across the world, new measures are being
introduced to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Once the concern primarily of banks, governments have expanded regulations and requirements for compliance since the late 1990s. Now all financial service providers, including those working with lowincome communities, are--or will--be affected.1 As a result, the new international framework and national measures for anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) could have far-reaching effects.
As the communities affected by the recent devastating tsunami begin to rebuild their lives, microfinance institutions (MFIs) can play a powerful part in the path to recovery. The following guidelines are intended to help MFIs provide the appropriate range of emergency and longer-term assistance to their clients, while helping both MFIs and donors ensure that the ultimate mission of the MFI--to be a sustainable provider of financial services--is not compromised.
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