Microfinance Focus` top 10 News Stories in 2009

Microfinance Focus, Dec. 23, 2009: Yet another significant year for the Microfinance Industry, Microfinance Focus looks back at the year 2009 and presents you with the most read stories covered by us in 2009.

01. Mentor of Indian Microfinance: Sitaram Rao passes away

Microfinance Focus, July 10, 2009: A trained chartered accountant, he had held several senior advisory positions with finance, microfinance and international marketing companies. He firmly believed that one of the effective ways to enhance the effectiveness of microfinance is to focus on value addition for microfinance borrowers through health, education and other services. He was a strong force behind of SKS’s evolution. SKS grew five times under his mentorship and expanded from Andhra Pradesh to Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh… Read More

02. Indian Budget bang on financial inclusion; Microfinance tops rural agenda

Microfinance Focus , July 6, 2009: The budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday reiterated the UPA government’s agenda to empower more rural women and announced its ambitious plans to enroll at least half of them into the network of self-help group (SHG) movement, besides increasing the corpus funding of the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh to Rs 500 crore…Read More

03. The pain of failure: Liquidation lessons in microfinance

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 16, 2009: When Washington Mutual, one of the largest US banks, was shut down in September 2008 following the sub-prime crisis, its depositors and secured creditors suffered no losses, though shareholders and unsecured creditors lost around $12 billion. That was still about 4 per cent of the company’s assets…Read more

04. Lessons learned from Microfinance crises: Viewpoints from investors

Microfinance Focus, Nov. 4, 2009: The ongoing Nicaraguan “No Pay” movement, which began Spring 2008 in the north of the country, is an example of an organized protest movement against microfinance institutions. Fuelled by a spike in defaults caused by the economic crisis and allegations of excessive interest rates, customer over-indebtedness and heavy-handed tactics by some MFIs to reclaim loans.
There have been smaller and more localized movements, such as in the Kolar region in southern Karnataka, India, and in northern Pakistan…Read more

05. SKS microfinance reaches 50 lakh women, targets 500 lakh now

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 9, 2009: Hyderabad-based SKS Microfinance, India’s largest microfinance company, has crossed five million clients; a milestone in its lending history. The company’s Darbhanga branch in Bihar on Tuesday extended a loan worth Rs 10,000 to Ms Anita Devi. It has provided loans to 13,218 more clients since then. With this, SKS has reached 2.5 per cent of the country’s population and distributed collateral-free loans worth Rs. 9,110 crore for income generation. Read more

06. Indian Microfinance on the verge of consolidation: Aavishkaar CEO

Microfinance Focus, Aug. 5, 2009: The consolidation process by Indian microfinance institutions may begin in less than a year and may become a norm in three years from now, says Aavishkaar CEO Vineet Rai. “Consolidation would become necessary for MFIs which are large in size while those smaller MFIs work at the grass roots level and hold the key to engage the borrowers…Read more

07. US to honor Microfinance pioneer Dr Muhammad Yunus with Freedom medal

Microfinance Focus, July 31, 2009: Microfinance pioneer Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder and managing director of Grameen Bank has been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom for 2009.  Dr. Yunus will receive the medal from President Barack Obama at a special White House ceremony on August 12. Each (recipient) saw an imperfect world and set about improving it, often overcoming great obstacles along the way…Read more

08. Bandhan microfinance targets unemployed youth

Microfinance Focus, Aug. 31, 2009: Apparently there is no avenue of microfinance that it does not enter.  Kolkata-based microfinance institution Bandhan has recently launched a new product for the unemployed youth called “Employing the Unemployed”. In less than two months, it has reached 35 beneficiaries in 18 districts spread over two districts in West Bengal. Unlike Bandhan’s other programs aimed at the poor women or rural unbanked people, this product is meant to help the youth to learn skills for future employment. Read more

09. Naina Lal Kidwai: Creditworthiness of MFIs tops our criteria

Microfinance Focus, Nov. 3, 2009: Naina Lal Kidwai, CEO of HSBC India, has more praise for the creditworthiness of microfinance institutions when she talks about lending to the sector.
The Chief Executive Officer of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, (HSBC) India, who is also the first Indian woman to head the operations of a foreign bank in India, has pointed out that despite the global credit crisis, microfinance sector has withstood its record in repayments and creditworthiness…Readmore

10. SaaS, the next wave in microfinance technology

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 14, 2009: Many software providers in the microfinance sector are increasingly turning to the next stage — a new SaaS (Software as a Service) platform. Market intelligence shows that many Indian software providers in microfinance space are now shifting their attention to this model, which has become popular in the mainstream software sector as well. SaaS is a model whereby a software provider provides an application to customers for use as a service on demand. SaaS software vendor usually hosts the application on his web servers which can be downloaded by the customer on his device or computer terminal, disabling it after use or after the on-demand contract expires. Read more

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