Slum-dweller Krustin bin Juri lost everything when floodwaters swept through his home and shop on the banks of Jakarta’s filthy Ciliwung river two years ago. But when the next flood hits, and it will because Jakarta sees frequent floods in the rainy season, bin Juri may have a modicum of protection thanks to a low-cost insurance policy that he purchased this month. He is among millions of the world’s poor who are covered for natural disasters by cheap insurance, or microinsurance, as commercial firms recognise that insuring the poor is not just good public relations but also profitable.

Microfinance is a term for the practice of providing financial services, such as microcredit, microsavings or microinsurance to poor people. By helping them to accumulate usably large sums of money, this expands their choices and reduces the risks they face. Suggested by the name, most transactions involve small amounts of money, frequently less than US$100.

Once upon a time, Sumitra used to roam the streets of the Indian city of Ahmedabad, collecting discarded caps which could be recycled and sold back to manufacturers such as Coca-Cola.

Clickatell, a vendor of messaging, is providing in-country SMS alert services to Satelite Microfinance Bank.

A permanent Calendar about the events of the FWA. The Financial Women’s Association brings together high achieving professionals from every sector of the financial world.

In reaction to the financial crisis, the U.S. banking industry and its regulators have been forced to seek new consumer protections that will put the industry on stronger ground. In marked contrast, one global subsector of the financial industry is moving proactively to ensure that client protection remains at the core of its business model. That subsector is microfinance, the provision of loans and other financial services to the poor worldwide.

Kiva President Premal Shah on the company's mission to fight poverty by lending to entrepreneurs. Video at Forbes.com

Ladi Smith, director, SIAO, in this interview with Daniel Obi, says Credit Awareness Nigeria Initiative is geared towards sensitising lenders on the need for credit information to avoid non-performing loans.

The ubiquity of the credit card and the impact of the recession mean the move to use a mobile phone to make payments and conduct banking is likely to be a slow and tortuous affair in Europe.

The summit will focus on urban poverty by bringing attendees to visit any of the seven leading microfinance organizations in Kenya.

A new microfinance bill that was recently introduced in the Indian Parliament would remove the cap on microloan interest rates. Although there would be no cap on interest rates, the regulatory body would “advise” microfinance institutions to keep rates low and would “closely monitor” them, according to government officials.

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been advised to shelve its proposed plan to conduct examination for all managing directors of registered microfinance banks across the country.

Will regulating the microfinance market in Egypt help breach a gap between supply and demand? Sherine Nasr seeks answers

MEPs gave the green light for EU funding to help Europe's unemployed start up small businesses. Credit will be made available to budding entrepreneurs through a "microfinance facility" funded partly from the existing Progress programme and partly from unallocated money in the EU budget.

Online sites like Babyloan or Kiva have taken the idea of lending small sums to help lift people out of poverty to create a direct personal link between lenders and borrowers.

The Microfinance Association (MA), an international membership organization for practitioners in the microfinance industry, has launched its Global Academy Program (GAP). The three-month program, developed by MA and Marconi University of Italy, is aimed at graduates seeking to develop a professional career in microfinance or international development.

In Mongolia, a microfinance system supported by The World Bank and its international partners helps create business opportunities in poor rural areas through the Mongolia Microfinance Development Fund and brings development to remote areas that have been severely affected by the global economic downturn.

Angel Acquisition Corp. ("Angel Acquisition Corp." or the "Company") (OTCBB: AGEL) announced today that the Company has signed a financing agreement with a Private Investor to partner with Angel's new micro financing, micro banking and micro lending network www.angelsinaction.tv

Bankers without Borders, a nonprofit that recruits finance executives to volunteer their time and expertise at microfinance projects in developing countries, has secured a $3m grant from JPMorgan Chase to expand the programme.

Microfinance, perhaps best known as a means of helping small business owners in developing countries move out of poverty, is one source already in place in the United States. These organizations make small loans and other financial services available to low- and moderate-income businesses.

Shah Mohammad Mir is the director of the Helmand Islamic Investment and Finance Corporation (HIIFC), an Islamic credit union, which makes microloans to farmers and other microentrepreneurs. Some farmers that previously grew poppies with Taliban-provided inputs have used loans to buy their own seeds and other supplies to grow wheat and other food crops. To comply with Shariah, Islamic law, loans do not bear interest but instead are repaid with a 2 percent administrative fee. Mr Mir says that the loans, normally for no more than USD 2,000 each, have enabled over 30 people to leave the Taliban. As a result, Mr Mir has received threatening phone calls and had guns fired outside his home. He left town for a short while, but has returned to operate HIIFC’s three branches, which have lent USD 1 million to 1,441 people since late 2007. Regarding the unrest in his country, Mr Mir says: “If we can get rid of the unemployment that should bring security.”

Poverty certainly emerged as the single most problem that lies at the heart of modern day crisis. It quite recently has assumed alarming proportions. Many efforts were made in the past but they could not wholly succeed. Among significant tools, the microfinance was also used for getting rid of poverty which quite recently plagued the whole world. There is always a room for innovation to be introduced to already existing structures. Though microfinance made some gains in alleviating it but with sufficient services the amount invested lie in the danger of being spent on the items of daily use owing to extreme poverty.

NAMIBIA's first micro-finance bank is a reality after the Bank of Namibia (BoN) yesterday granted Fides Bank Namibia a permanent banking licence.

Microfinance: Trading bread for briquettes—MFIs are a new type of charity. Just because the holidays are over doesn’t mean you have to give up on giving. While supporting traditional environmental charities is a wonderful way to make a difference, you might also want to consider giving to eco-oriented microfinance institutions (MFIs). An MFI differs from a traditional aid program in that it lends, rather than donates, money at a low interest rate, which allows people to invest in small scale entrepreneurial projects of their own choosing.

MicroRate is the first rating agency dedicated to measuring the performance of microfinance institutions ("MFIs"). MicroRate's rating teams visit MFIs and "kick their tires". Statement of Damian von Stauffenberg Chairman and Founder MicroRate. Committee on House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade.

Khula Enterprise Finance (KEF) of South Africa provides funding to financial institutions to be channeled to socially-oriented causes.

"The relief effort is intense right now, and we know that Haiti needs food, water and medicine immediately, but Haiti will also need foundational support for it's economy"

Microfinance leaders from 35 countries have already registered for the Africa-Middle East Regional Microcredit Summit to be held April 7-10, 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya. The Summit will be the largest microfinance gathering ever held in Africa and the Middle East. Her Royal Highness Princess Máxima of The Netherlands, one of the keynote speakers, will join Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus, BRAC Chair Fazle Abed, CARE CEO Helene Gayle, and Kenya’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta at the Summit in Nairobi.

At the fourth Microfinance Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, announced that all microfinance bank CEOs would be required to pass a CBN administered exam in order to continue managing their banks. A training program will be held during the first quarter of this year, with certificates being issued at the end of the exercise. Any bank that does not comply with the rules will have its license withdrawn.

Kiva.org -- the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website -- has launched a pilot expansion in the United States, allowing individuals anywhere to make small loans to U.S. entrepreneurs through the Kiva.org website.

Jewish & Palestinian Students Unite to Answer Obama’s Call to Action in Cairo by Launching Lending Site to Empower Entrepreneurs in the Middle East.

There is a banker who is still feted across the world, collecting accolades and honours wherever he goes. The institution he founded more than 20 years ago is unscathed by the current financial crisis, and his opinion is more sought after than ever before as politicians and economists desperately try to fix our bankrupt system. Muhammad Yunus is to economic development what Nelson Mandela is to world peace.

Founder of an international nonprofit, a speaker before the World Bank, Presidential Scholar, a veteran in microfinance, participant in a discussion with the Dalai Lama — the graduating senior from San Jose's Notre Dame High School has packed more into her slender years than most people do into a lifetime. And she's not yet 18.

Jacqueline Novogratz interviewed by David Serchuk (Forbes). Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and chief executive officer of Acumen Fund, a nonprofit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to combat global poverty.

Be sure to read Founder, Dana Dakin’s Story of how she traveled to Ghana in 2003 on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday to find a village and start a microlending program.

The urgency with which the Obama administration, members of Congress, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have been working to keep credit available reminds us how critical credit is to the economy. These folks know that without widely available credit, our economy would descend into a debilitating depression.

Kingsolver, the bestselling author writes of a visit to the rural countryside of Orissa in northeastern India, where she interacted with the Akandalamuni Women's Club, which has 15 members. "Like millions of women in South Asia, they started their own microcredit group. Attending twice-monthly meetings and putting two rupees per month (about four cents) into a joint savings account qualified them for small loans, collateralized by group guarantee. This year they borrowed enough to rent a five-acre plot for growing sugar cane, from which they share the proceeds."

Women’s World Banking, Ghana, (IWWBG) arguably the most innova¬tive microfinance institution in Ghana has won an award at the recent Women's World Banking Global Network and Capital Markets meeting held in New York.

Africa's economy of cash handovers and stowed-away savings has long been a hindrance to the continent's economic growth, as well as a cause and excuse to deny credit to its poor. But now, at a time when 10 million Ghanaians own a phone, the world's banks, cell phone networks and aid agencies are coming here to flip one thing into the other — to tweak a few features on a sim card, circumvent some regulations, and voila: The ordinary pre-paid cell phone becomes something not unlike a checking account - a way to text money from person to person throughout this intricate economy.

Microenterprise is an escape valve for social tension at times of crisis, and microbusinesses do a better job of weathering the storm than bigger companies because they are used to overcoming difficulties – a positive effect that is further multiplied when it involves women.

The first microfinance project in Oman is to be launched by PlaNet Finance UAE to give financial assistance to entrepreneurs.

BEIRUT: The microfinance industry in Lebanon is considered to be relatively small and is estimated to have a potential of 190,000 active borrowers, Ziad Halabi, general manager of Ameen s.a.l said on Friday. "As of end 2008 the market consisted of 54,000 active clients, which means that only 28.4 percent of the market has been served, so we still have a gap of 71.6 percent in the market," said Halabi during a conference held at Haigazian Univerisity in Beirut. The conference aims to discuss the importance of the microfinance industry in Lebanon and the challenges facing it in addition to the potential of its future growth.

India should work towards empowering women economically -- through microfinance programs -- and also encourage greater participation of women leaders in panchayats, or village councils, writes author Shoba Narayan in this opinion piece.

NetHope has grown to 26 members, including locally based nonprofits Mercy Corps, PATH and World Vision, and major supporters such as Microsoft. Seattle has become a hub for technology and philanthropy, so it's not surprising that a nonprofit consortium combining both would find fertile ground here.

Innovation is helping to bring safe financial services to the doorsteps of Africa's poor.

A teacher by training, Lynne Randolph Patterson never expected to find herself at the helm of Pro Mujer, a multi-national financial services company.

Religion can play a part in delivering us from the illusion that money is the measure of all things.

The former prime minister is attracting wealthy donors to back his health and harmony projects. "The Blairs are using all their resources to tackle things they care about," said Sue Wixley of New Philanthropy Capital, a think tank that connects charities to donors. "In this case, the Blairs' resources are their contacts."

Microfinance has proven itself so far to be very resilient to what is happening globally, and its clients are not necessarily experiencing anything that is correlated to the events in the US, Bob Annibale, Global Head of Microfinance at Citigroup said on Tuesday.

ACCION's Maria Otero to Serve as One of Six Under Secretaries of State; Tapped to Lead U.S. Foreign Relations on Democracy, Human Rights, Labor, Population and More.

The apex regulatory banking institution in the country, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been in the news in the last couple of days for a joyful reason. The bank has every reason to be in a festive mood, having clocked 50 golden years since its establishment.

The Gates Foundation has pledged $40 million to independent think tanks in developing countries, starting with a 24 institutions in Africa. The aim of the initiative is to provide long-term funding to organizations so they can produce sound research that influences national policy debate and decision making, said Mark Suzman, director of policy and advocacy for the Gates Foundation's global development program.

For centuries, Britain has been a leader in finance and banking. Today we are setting out how we can remain world leaders. Not at the expense of others, but in partnership with them. And not by returning to business as usual, but by reforming, renewing and championing our financial sector so that it is ready and able to seize future opportunities.

This year, the week of 11-17 May has been declared National Volunteers Week, and Opportunity International Australia would like to recognise all the Ambassadors, volunteers and Board members who so generously volunteer their time, skills and expertise to help us with our cause. From university students and interns to industry professionals and experts, we have many volunteers helping us out across the country, helping us increase our outreach to more people living in poverty.

At the end of December last year, Nigeria had 815 licensed MFBs, putting itself in the first position globally on the number of practicing MFBs. However, the Managing Director, Elim MFB, Mrs. Ifeoma Ana, said that in spite the number of licensed MFBs operating in the country, micro financing would remain a mirage to the people except positive steps were taken to ensure that the sub-sector was effective in alleviating poverty.

iGrin is Australia's first peer to peer lending marketplace.

This seaside city is known as a rich stockpile of art deco architecture, the hub of Morocco's economic growth and the setting of an all-time classic movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. But Casablanca is also the capital of a bleaker aspect of modern Morocco -- sprawling slums, where huge families are packed into shanties with tin roofs rusted by the ocean winds, and goats and donkeys munch stray garbage.

Clickatell, messaging provider for financial services, has been selected by Fortis Microfinance Bank to provide SMS Receipts(TM) to thousands of retail banking customers throughout Nigeria.

Sean Moroney, chairman of AITEC Africa, whose core business since 1987 has been focussed on ICT publishing, event management, professional development and training in Africa, spoke to Hilary Okeke on the forthcoming AITEC Banking and Payment Technologies Conference and other issues.

Few women in Africa work in regular, formal sector jobs, and even those generally earn too little to escape from poverty. Decades after the world officially recognized a human right to gender equality, women remain largely excluded from the upper ranks of government and business, earn less than their male co-workers and face an array of customs, traditions and attitudes that limit their opportunities.

A new children's book tells the story of what happens when a young boy living in Ghana in West Africa borrows a few coins from his village's collective fund. The boy, Kojo, has an idea: to buy one hen. He walks two hours to a chicken farm in a neighboring village, and he finds the hen he wants — plump and brown, with a bright red comb. He buys that hen — with the hopes of selling some of the eggs she lays in order to buy more hens. And he does buy more hens — and more and more of them.

ACCION Wins Inter-American Development Bank's First "Juscelino Kubitschek Award". ACCION International, a pioneer and leader in microfinance, today announced that it has been awarded the Inter-American Development Bank's "Juscelino Kubitschek Award" for its contributions to economic and financial development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

New research reveals that mobile financial services offer some of the best commissions in the world — threatening to knock toothpaste from its lofty perch as the most lucrative product for profit hungry merchants. CGAP, a global microfinance centre, has listed M-Pesa as the world’s biggest mobile banking success.

Microfinance – previously seen as an area bound to make perennial losses - is rapidly growing into one of the important asset classes that investors are hunting for. Even though there have been no dramatic developments since Parliament enacted the Microfinance Act two years ago in Kenya, it is turning out that this is one of the most lucrative areas of investment for both equity and debt investors.

A hive of social activity: where French entrepreneurs benefit from collective intelligence. After graduating, Charlotte Hochman worked with several grassroots organisations in India and Brazil, one of which was Village Action. She then launched La Ruche, or ‘The Beehive’ in English, a NGO that is open to anyone proposing an innovative solution to a social or ecological challenge...

Parminder Bahra, Times' correspondent finds doubts raised about the effectiveness of one of the big ideas in the fight against poverty.

Grameen Phone and its Village Phone Initiative is akin to a public pay phone microenterprise run by a rural woman. A Grameen Bank borrower uses their loan to become a Grameen Phone microfranchisee. The new business owner gains access to the branding, training, and partners of Grameen Phone. To date there are over 200,000 Village Phone operators in rural areas bringing increased access to regional markets, knowledge, and services to the rural poor.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, known as the "banker to the poor" for making small loans in impoverished countries, is now doing business in the center of capitalism — New York City. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus greets borrowers at a Grameen America open house at St. John's University in New York on Saturday.

Insurers should think small to tap into one of their biggest opportunities for growth: serving poor people. The financial services industry is facing unprecedented challenges worldwide due to excessive risk-taking. Complicated investment vehicles, insufficient transparency and excessive swapping of credit default risk have had a severe and pervasive impact on confidence. The world's most advanced markets for financial services are reeling in uncertainty.

In recognition of Mother's Day (May 10, 2009), Calvert Foundation is undertaking a major "Honor Mom" campaign to channel new resources from investors and donors into international microfinance and microlending initiatives benefiting women, who are lifting themselves and their families out of poverty.

Forty percent of the world's population lives on less than $2 per day, according to the World Bank. Yet even in the midst of the current economic meltdown, there is reason for new optimism in the fight to reduce global poverty. The optimism starts with the evolution of microfinance, which has proved not only that the poor are credit-worthy, but that banking institutions serving the poor are investment-worthy. In addition, microfinance is tapping into a technological revolution that enables areas with deficient land phone service to leapfrog ahead to cellphones and broadband. And, as this takes place, both philanthropy and capital markets are paying careful attention.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced a new partnership of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) for the purpose of launching a new Microfinance Growth Fund for the Western Hemisphere. The fund will provide stable medium and longer-term sources of finance to microfinance institutions and microfinance investment vehicles to help rebuild their capacity to lend during this difficult period and to increase the supply of finance for micro and small businesses as recovery takes hold.

The European Microfinance Platform [e-MFP] was founded formally in 2006. They are a growing network of approximately 100 organisations and individuals active in the area of microfinance. Their principal objective is to promote co-operation amongst European microfinance bodies working in developing countries, by facilitating communication and the exchange of information. They are a multi-stakeholder organisation representative of the European microfinance community. e-MFP members include banks, financial institutions, government agencies, NGOs, consultancy firms, researchers and universities.

The essence of microfinance and its correlation with poverty alleviation was discussed at the inauguration of the international conference on ‘Microfinance for Inclusive Development and Sustainable Growth’, held today at the Centre for Banking Studies, Colombo. Poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka has been a top priority of governments since Independence itself, said Deputy Governor of Central Bank W.A. Wijewardane, stating that Sri Lanka has achieved a decline in poverty levels from 20% in 2003 to 15% in 2007. “This has been a major feat for Sri Lanka as poverty signifies social harm and impairment. Our top most achievement should be to kill the absolute poverty line in the future,” he said.

An industry group recently launched a project to analyse how biometrics could strengthen customer identification and help prevent fraud in the banking industry.

The idea of an inter- bank market for microfinance banks is no doubt an interesting one. For starters, such a platform will provide an opportunity for increased mobility of funds among microfinance banking operators, thereby reducing the cost of funding and improving the net interest margin by providing these micro-credit banks with a solid funding base to address short and medium-term requirements. But as laudable as the initiative may be, it is not without challenges as regards effectiveness, considering that the microfinance institutions are spread haphazardly all over the country. This, surely, is unlike the money market association for commercial banks, which has about 24 branches with headquarters in Lagos.

The National Employment Fund wants to improve the performance of microfinance institutions in Cameroon, considering the role the sector plays in the country's economy. A workshopo was organised to that effect yesterday in Yaounde to build the capacity of workers and render the sector more productive.

Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva, the world's first person-to-person micro-lending Web site, spoke at the Shell Auditorium April 14. Jackley was invited by Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Beyond Traditional Borders Director, as part of the Rice 360 initiative. Kiva, which means "agreement" or "unity" in Swahili, has helped nearly 500,000 lenders across the globe loan approximately $67 million to individual entrepreneurs from 45 developing countries since its founding three and a half years ago, the organization's Web site said.

Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has said that microfinance is an important pillar and integral part of Pakistan’s poverty reduction strategy and the government is making all out efforts to expand its coverage through microfinance banking, microfinance institutions and rural support programme.

In today’s microfinance industry, there is still some debate about whether and when long-term subsidies might be justified in order to reach particularly challenging groups of clients. But there is now widespread agreement, within the industry at least, that in most situations MFIs ought to pursue financial sustainability by being as efficient as they can and by charging interest rates and fees high enough to cover the costs of their lending and other services...

Report from CGAP finds that MFIs are well-positioned to contribute to energy efficiency in developing countries, but recommends shift in priorities from loans to financial services that include savings.

Two years after being launched as the first poverty-focused social business in the Arab world, Grameen-Jameel Pan-Arab Microfinance Limited (Grameen-Jameel) is celebrating significant milestones that are helping to transform microfinance’s impact across the Arab World.

JP Laurel Rural Bank is being transformed into a rural bank focused on microfinance

Unitus is deepening its commitment to East Africa by opening the Africa Microfinance Growth Centre, the first leadership development programme of its kind for early-stage microfinance providers in East Africa. The programme, developed in partnership with Financial Sector Deepening (FSD), will graduate CEOs and senior managers with improved strategy, leadership, and execution ability needed to rapidly grow their organizations and expand financial services to families living on less than $2 a day.

The global micro-credit industry has been hurt by the financial crisis but loan defaults by the world's poor remain low and private equity money will still fuel growth, a micro-finance group said. But Women's World Banking, billed as the world's biggest network of micro-finance institutions, said micro-financiers were struggling to raise funds to loan to the poor because of soaring borrowing costs and predicted growth would slow sharply.

Many of the world’s life-changing conveniences wouldn’t be possible without utilities. Utilities provide water for drinking, cooking, and washing; and electricity to power everything from light bulbs to vacuum cleaners. But there is another service whose convenience also transforms lives by enabling economic livelihoods and supporting social relationships, but that does not enjoy the benefit of a utility’s delivery infrastructure: electronic cash payments. The notion of the payments utility may be a rather utopian view of how retail payments in developing countries could enable universal access to finance. Despite the attention, and even hype, that branchless banking has been getting in industry circles and in the media, there are still fundamental challenges – like understanding what drives customers, making the economics work for agents, providing accounts for all, and building workable business models. But it’s never too soon to start thinking big.

According to a report in the Financial Times and an article from the Microfinance Gateway, fledgling microfinance projects are helping to revive the Iraqi economy after years of public sector dominance, a decade of sanctions, and six years of violence. The US, and specifically its military, is actively involved in these microfinance schemes as part of its war on terrorism. The projects typically involve loans of a few thousand dollars given to people with between one and three employees. By the end of January 2009, the US had made 41,728 loans, totaling USD 59.7 million.

Dave Valle, a former Major League Baseball player for the Seattle Mariners, is the founder of microcredit agency Esperanza, whose mission is to help the poor in the Dominican Republic and Haiti start their own businesses. In addition to making loans, Esperanza has become active in community development: creating a school, computer training centers, a member-funded health care plan, a water treatment system, and a home improvement initiative. The organization has also spearheaded the construction of five baseball fields.

The Government of Uganda is to set up a body to license and regulate the work of the Savings and Credit Co-operative Organizations (SACCOs) of Uganda, according to a press release on the Ugandan newspaper Monitor.

Newton Microfinance Institution is the leading private financial institution in Lao PDR. Their vision is to make sure that every Lao resident not only has access to but also benefits from the financial blessings globally enjoyed.

Aqush.jp has launched Aqush Tomo, a p2p lending service to facilitate loans between friends and family members. Aqush is a service of Exchange Corporation K.K., which states it’s mission as @to leverage innovation and international best practices to pioneer ‘Social’ financial services in Asia. @

Consultancy Gartner predicts that “By 2010, social-banking platforms will have captured 10% of the available market for retail lending and financial planning.”

Sites like Prosper and Lending Club must adjust to SEC oversight. For some people, the communities of small borrowers and lenders extend a credit lifeline. Just when it might have proved most useful, peer-to-peer lending has been severely hamstrung by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission's efforts to get a regulatory handle on the fledgling industry. With the credit crisis making it harder and harder for cash-strapped households and small businesses to get bank loans, the opportunity for creditworthy applicants to borrow up to $25,000 from strangers at slightly higher interest rates was seen as something of a godsend.

CGAP, a microfinance group based at the World Bank, is supporting WIZZIT Bank to deliver banking services to poor people in South Africa's small towns and rural areas. WIZZIT is a division of the South African Bank of Athens Limited.

Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd. (FINO), a Mumbai-based biometric-enabled smartcard solutions provider, engaged in providing financial, non-financial products and services to the unbanked rural masses has enrolled 5 million customers to avail them basic banking and insurance services.

MicroPlace (www.microplace.com), a website that enables everyday people to invest in the world's working poor, announced today the launch of the first microfinance investment opportunity that offers a 6 percent annual return for everyday investors.

Elmo? SpongeBob? A children's book by Wellesley's Katie Smith Milway is all about microfinance. And it's a hit.

Jamie Bedson, lead coordinator at the Banking With The Poor Network Secretariat, in Singapore, told Connect Asia's Sen Lam that about 91 microfinance funds lend out money across Asia.

Those most in need of new renewable technologies are often least able to raise the finance necessary to fund such development. Now, a new commodities exchange scheme is bringing renewables to the South Pacific using a novel rural payment method. Binu Parthan explains how the scheme works.

Cloud-computing technology has come along way. For example a single server can host several virtual servers on one machine. That is a simple example of cloud-computing. Cloud-computing is when any virtualised resources are provided as a service. This is expected to become a huge industry. And this is now concerning the Microfinance Institutions.

Parliament adopted a legislative report on a proposal to support the growth of microcredit institutions in the EU. The report drafted by Zsolt Laszlo Becsey (EPP-ED, HU) was approved by 574 votes in favour, 23 against and 12 abstentions.

While the industry has grown at a healthy 30% in recent years, the future of microfinance rests on modern approaches to scaling the industry and leveraging the entrepreneurial energy employed in Silicon Valley.

Since the advent of the global economic downturn in mid-2007, there has been much discussion regarding what impact, if any, the financial crisis will have on the microfinance sector. Yana Watson of Dalberg Global Development Advisors provides a diagnosis of different impacts on MFIs depending on their capital structure and geography. She contends that while the impact of the crisis can be anticipated, its outcome is not a foregone conclusion. For microfinance to survive and thrive, she shares recommendations for action on the part of microfinance network and institution leaders, as well as public and private investors.

Cambodian microfinance institutions say economic crisis is taking its toll on the MFI sector and increasing the number of nonperforming loans to more than 1 percent. Microfinance lenders say the economic crisis is leading to higher rates of nonperforming loans in 2009. Last year, bad loans were just 0.67 percent of total lending.

This week's G-20 summit is essentially an echo chamber for the world's wealthy to talk macrofinance. The world economy might rebound more quickly if they listen to what the poor have to say about microfinance.

The problems associated with borrowing from microfinance banks (MFBs) by individuals and the cost of operations of the banks will soon be a thing of the past with the coming on board of credit bureaux in the Nigerian financial institutions. Since MFBs grant loan to financially active poor without collateral, it is possible for individuals who consider themselves smart to take loan from different banks with different information.

New York based Women's World Banking (WWB) has signed on UBA Microfinance Bank as its only network partner in Nigeria. With the admittance of the microfinance subsidiary of United Bank for Africa Plc as a network partner of the WWB, UBA Microfinance Bank has joined the global network of partner microfinance institutions and banks including ASA, the number 1, and other top 9 Microfinance Finance Banks in the world.

In the face of major client protection failures in the mainstream financial sector, leaders of the microfinance industry came together this month seeking means to ensure that microfinance providers worldwide remain committed to serving their clients' best interests.

Royal Exchange plc, has been granted approval-in-principle by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate a microfinance bank in the country, a move that is expected to deepen access to financial services by the informal and under-banked segments of the economy.

WaterPartners projects are funded through grants, loans, or a combination of grants and loans. Our loan program is called WaterCredit, and is the first of its kind. The idea of building community-based water supply projects through a combination of grants and loans is new to the water sector. Until now, almost all water projects facilitated by other organizations have been funded entirely by grants, even when the individuals served by the project have the means to share costs.

Grameen Foundation has received Shs7 billion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support agricultural technology, healthcare, and also improve access of information services by rural farmers in Uganda and Ghana.

According to Mr. Attali, who is President of PlaNet Finance, micro-credit plays a key role in development efforts targeting the poorest segments of the population, and micro-finance sources need to be preserved at a time when the global financial crisis is severely hitting Africa. The continent has made steady progress over the last decade, building the foundations for higher growth rates and poverty reduction.

Government policy responses to the global financial meltdown must focus on the role of women as economic agents in order to address the all-too-familiar trend of women and girls suffering disproportionately during times of economic crisis, speakers told the Commission on the Status of Women this afternoon as it held an expert panel discussion on the gender perspectives of the crisis.

Jacqueline Novogratz tells a moving story of an encounter in a Nairobi slum with Jane, a former prostitute, whose dreams of escaping poverty, of becoming a doctor and of getting married were fulfilled in an unexpected way.

What if someone approached you and said, “Come up with four grand and I’ll let you spend your summer fighting athletes’ foot, near-death traffic experiences and the glorious state of having ass-rash?” It might sound like an abduction or ransom situation to some. But two UBC students have willingly signed up for this.

Non-profit Kiva.org plans to launch system of small loans in the U.S.

Presenting a paper during Micro-Finance Investors Forum, organized by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), held in Kano, Dogara believes that Islamic Micro-Finance could similarly be an excellent substitute for the conventional micro-finance currently being implemented in the country.

Microfinance ought to be high on the agenda of policymakers looking for an imaginative response to the global financial crisis. As an ethical, responsible financial system that serves productive businesses through intimate knowledge of the client, it is founded upon principles that are diametrically opposed to those practiced by the conventional bankers that sparked the crisis. However bold the prescriptions of political leaders in the developed world may be, the fact remains that these economies are so saturated with excessive debt that it will be years before they generate the demand required to get the global economy moving again. That demand will have to come from elevating the world's poor. Microfinance, with its proven record and ethical purpose, is the key to that goal. The potential for growth among the poor is enormous. A responsible financial system that stimulates entrepreneurship at the bottom and earns income for the poorest is a benefit to us all.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh earlier this week made a valiant call for a bailout package for the world’s poor. At a recent meeting in Tokyo, the microfinance guru warned that the global economic crisis will hit the world’s poorest people the hardest and that “there is no bailout package for them.”

About half of all African enterprises are owned by women. “We are not waiting. We are moving,” says Pilda Modjadji, a founding member of the Pankop Women Farmers Forum in Mpumalanga, South Africa. “We mean business.”

First Global Investments Holdings (FGIH) recently launched its Islamic Microfinance programme which was targeted at alleviating poverty in the suburbs of Colombo.

Led by a consortium of partners, project supports GOE’s Safety Net Program, a new nationwide development project that will assist poor, rural households in food insecure areas that benefit from the Government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). This three year project will move households towards graduation from PSNP through market-driven approaches to diversify their livelihoods, build assets and link to financial services and markets.

Forget multibillion-dollar bailouts. Muhammad Yunus thinks the solution to the global financial crisis can be found in loans of much smaller size, backed with more prosaic assets: ducks, chickens, and cows. Microcredit could soon spread across the stricken U.S. as big banks contract. On the strength of local invitations, Grameen is considering setting up shop in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Omaha, Neb., where Susan Buffett, daughter of resident sage Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway approached the bank.

Small budgets can yield big gains with the help of high technology. Researchers expect interest and investments in microfinancing to grow significantly in coming years. A December 2007 report by Deutsche Bank Research predicts that U.S. institutional and individual investments in microfinancing will jump from $2 billion in 2006 to $20 billion in 2015.

Credit, according to Professor Muhammad Yunus, is a fundamental human right. However, if not handled with care, the magnification effect inherent in leverage can make it dangerous. One need only look at the current economic spiral to see the result of the provision of credit gone dangerously awry. Credit must be deployed to microfinance borrowers judiciously in order to minimize the risk of non-repayment, as this would cause lenders, themselves levered, to suffer magnified losses. Vinay Nair, an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan currently on sabbatical, explains that it is imperative to avoid over-leverage to avoid losing control.

Microcredit programs throughout the world are a means of giving low-income, even very poor, families a way to earn their own money and work their way out of poverty. These programs in Guam give small loans, or other financial services, for people who want to run their own small business, according to the Microcredit Summit Campaign.

The effective collapse in 2008 of the US government-Wall Street-driven model of liberal capitalism is an event of major historical importance. As with the collapse of an earlier wall in 1989 – the Berlin Wall – transition to a new economic model is now required, and is indeed underway. The microfinance industry is in no less a need for radical change. This is because many of the flawed character traits that have ultimately destroyed Wall Street also lie at the heart of the increasingly commercialised microfinance industry. In a very uncomfortable parallel with the spectacular rise of Wall Street’s most hallowed institutions and individuals, now consigned to the grubby margins of business and economic history, careerism, personal greed and the related drive for profit have also blinded the microfinance industry to the fact that microfinance is ultimately destroying the goal of reducing poverty and promoting sustainable economic and social development.

Oikocredit, as a worldwide cooperative society, promotes global justice by challenging people, churches and others to share their resources through socially responsible investments and by empowering disadvantaged people with credit.Oikocredit believes that poor people can build themselves a better life, if only given the chance. If only given credit.

At almost every forum on microfinance banking nowadays, the threats being posed by the involvement of commercial banks in the microfinance sector is a constant topic of discussion. This is rather considered as very strange for the operators of microfinance banking to feel threatened by the involvement of the commercial banks in a sector where the more players we have, the merrier it is for the country and micro/small businesses especially for the active poor in the land. The perceived threat is considered strange because Nigeria is still regarded as under banked, even with the entry of the microfinance banks into the economy. The average bank density in Nigeria is said to be an outlet for 32,000 people in the urban area and one outlet to 57,000 people in rural areas.

SKS Microfinance, the largest microfinance provider in India in terms of assets, is eyeing China as its next destination for expansion. The export-driven Chinese economy is reeling under the impact of recession due to the global meltdown. Several vocationally-trained employees have already suffered job losses.

Microfinance in China is poised for a significant expansion as the government, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and commercial banks begin to explore ways to provide the country's most impoverished people with greater access to credit. According to Bai Chengyu, secretary general of the China Association of Microfinance, after 10 years of development, microcredit has entered a transition phase and is now moving "from experiment to large-scale commercial development."

More than 106 million of the world’s poorest families received a microloan in 2007, surpassing a goal set ten years earlier, according to a report released today by the Microcredit Summit Campaign. Microloans are used to help people living in extreme poverty start or expand a range of tiny businesses such as husking rice, selling tortillas, and delivering cell phone services to remote villages.

One of the major challenges confronting micro finance banks in Nigeria is the ability to maintain liquidity and give maximum satisfaction to customers. Managing Director of OPENGATE MFB Mr. Nureni Yusuf said that in order to break even, financial institutions must be willing to forecast their cash flow and manage a balanced treasury.

Like the consumer lenders before them, MFIs are also beginning to see the value of sharing information. Yet, credit information markets are generally in their infancy in most developing countries, and if developed, are generally quite fragmented.

Launched in the fall of 2003, WAM was created to support women in the microfinance industry. The mission of Women Advancing Microfinance International is to advance and support women working in microfinance through education and training, by promoting leadership opportunities, and by increasing visibility of their participation and talent while maintaining a work/life balance.

Praseeda, honoured for her activism and microfinance work with India’s destitute women, won the award alongside a myriad of Indian film stars, doctors, corporate achievers, authors, artists and healthcare workers.

With more than half of the adult population unable to access retail banking services, the introduction of microfinance banking by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was welcomed by Nigeria’s development partners and the general populace.

The bank will be the product of a fusion between NEF (France), Banca popolare etica (Italy) and Fiare (Spain). it will take the form of a European cooperative.

Microfinance is helping people escape poverty across the developing world. Are China’s would-be entrepreneurs getting the same help?

With the admittance of the microfinance subsidiary of United Bank for Africa Plc as a network partner of the WWB, UBA Microfinance Bank has joined the global network of partner microfinance institutions and banks including ASA, the number one and four others in the list of the top 10 Microfinance Finance Banks in the world.

PlaNet finance launches a new programme. The programme, in collaboration with the Freie Universität Berlin, aims at promoting science and practice in the microfinance sector.

Microfinance refers to financial services provided to low-income people, usually to help support self-employment. By providing very poor families with small loans to invest in their microenterprises, Village Banking empowers them to create their own jobs.

Grameen Foundation support microfinance programs that enable the poor, mostly women, to lift themselves out of poverty and make better lives for their families. To do this, Grameen Foundation partner with a worldwide network of microfinance institutions.

Microfinance is often considered one of the most effective and flexible strategies in the fight against global poverty. It is sustainable and can be implemented on the massive scale necessary to respond to the urgent needs of those living on less than $1 a day, the World’s poorest.

The modern microfinance movement dates back to the 1970s when experimental programs in Bangladesh, Brazil, and a few other countries began to extend tiny loans to groups of poor women to invest in microenterprises. As a result, the microfinance institutions providing the services were able to develop business models that were sustainable, no longer needing subsidy. These institutions showed that the poor were "bankable".

Access to financial services is a fundamental tool for improving a family’s well-being and productive capacity. Access to financial services empowers the poor by reducing their vulnerability, and offering them opportunities to improve their lives.CGAP works toward a world in which poor people are considered valued clients of their country’s financial system. We aim to help build efficient and equitable local financial markets that serve all poor people with convenient and affordable financial services.