International Highlights
Mongolia to benefit from microfinance and carbon credit deal
Citi’s London-based Environmental Products Trading and Origination team, working with Citi Microfinance, has agreed to purchase 1.17 million metric tonnes of carbon credits over the next seven years from Seattle-based social enterprise MicroEnergy Credits. This deal also combines microloans in Mongolia with the sale of carbon credits on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).
India's Mobile Banking Ekosystem
Mobile banking is just one of the reasons India is a place to watch for innovations in financial inclusion. Five years’ ago, Abhishek and Abhinav Sinha created a software program that allows migrant workers in cities across India to send money to their families using a cellphone. Now their company, Eko Financial Services Ltd., is working with two major banks, the State Bank of India and ICICI, India’s second largest bank, to offer financial services to poor and low income customers using local corner stores, pharmacies, and airtime resellers as agents.
PRASAC receives debt financing of USD 2 million from ABA
On 23 May 2012, PRASAC Microfinance Institution and Advanced Bank of Asia Limited (ABA) signed a loan agreement in amount of USD 2 million. With this kind of fund, it indicates that PRASAC is able to diversify its funding sources and to provide more loans to its clients who mainly use loans for expanding and starting businesses in the rural as well as urban area.
MFI sector in India needs regulation
The government of India has drafted the Micro Finance Sector Bill under which it is mandatory for all micro finance institutions to be registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The Bill also entrusts the task of regulating the sector with the RBI.
Microfinance industry embracing client protection- Smart Campaign Report
The Smart Campaign's "State of the Practice" report claims that the effort to embed client protection deeply in the microfinance industry is still young, but is thriving. 88 percent of the rated MFIs received overall passing marks (3.0 or higher on a 1-5 scale) with an average score of 3.8. These results also hold for the two most important principles, Preventing Over-indebtedness and Transparency. While there was relatively little overall variation by region or institution size or type, smaller institutions underperformed the average, as did MFIs in sub-Saharan Africa.
