The Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) has announced their December 2008 edition of the Global 100 Composite: Rankings of Microfinance Institutions. Based on data published on MIX Market, the MIX Global 100 Composite Ranking highlights institutions that achieve high outreach and low transaction costs while being both profitable and transparent. The ranking surveyed the business results of 971 institutions for FY 2007.

By Indrajit Basu - Kolkata, India — Ramaa, a 45-year old widow from the remote village of Khirgaon in the Indian state of Bihar, set up a grocery store with US$120 loaned by Casper Microfinance, a lender of small loans to the poor. The mother of two recently spent her savings marrying off a daughter and wants to borrow again. However, Casper Microfinance has no money to lend… So, Ramaa had to pawn her shop to borrow from a local landlord at an exorbitant interest rate. "If I default in paying back, I stand the risk of losing not only my livelihood but my home as well," she said. The small grocery shop she runs out of a small shack that doubles as home after hours is her only worldly possession. However, Ramaa is not alone. "I have hundreds of borrowers who are suffering like her," said Tomar, whose company has lent about US$30 million to almost 100,000 small and poor borrowers in India. While Casper Microfinance is gasping for funds, business for many small and medium sized microfinance institutions is worse and has almost come to a halt due to paucity of funds. Read the complete article: Global cash crunch hits South Asia's poor

You can download Ujjivan's Update Newsletter for November 2008 on PDF.

Ujjivan was deeply impacted by the terrorist attack. They lost a valued well wisher and one of their earliest investors, Ashok Kapur, Non Executive Chairman of Yes Bank. Ashok and his wife Madhu had gone to have dinner on that fateful evening with friends at the Kandahar Restaurant at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai.

XacBank successfully executed the Bank of Mongolia’s recent order addressed to all commercial banks in Mongolia to bring the capital adequacy ratio to a minimum of 12 percent. The above measure will guarantee a secure environment for deposit holders and adequate level of growth for the bank.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia , November 11th, 2008: XacBank and TenGer Financial Group (TFG) are pleased to announce the successful closing of equity investment into Mol Bulak Finance Micro Credit Company of Kyrgyz Republic, after 5 months of concerted effort.

Equity bank has been named the best Micro Finance Bank in Africa. The bank emerged the top microfinance bank of the year, beating three other entries from the continent in the category during the annual African Bankers Awards ceremony held in Washington DC, USA.

Several NGO's, including WWB network member Fundacion Mundial de la Mujer Popayan, noted for their high-quality services won the Inter-American Development Bank’s annual awards for institutions that excel in their support for microenterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean. Full story.

August 16, 2008
India
Financial system's potential
The Economic Times (Naina Lal Kidwai )

Friends of Women’s World Banking, India (FWWB, I) a non-profit Trust is in the process of setting up a Non Banking Finance Company. FWWB operates as a ‘wholesale’ providing loan to micro finance institutions across India. In order to reach out to more number of new micro finance institutions and extend larger support to its ongoing partner MFIs it is forming a NBFC.

Up to 300,000 Mongolians will be reached by a new cellphone banking service to be launched by Mongolian microfinance firm XacBank . The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP ) , a Washington, DC-based microfinance body, is supporting XacBank with technical assistance and funding.

CARD of the Philippines was named one of seven 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees, also known as Asia's equivalent of the Nobel. In the past, our Honorary Board Member for Life, Ela Bhatt, was a recipient of this prestigious award.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) have announced the first-ever ranking of MFIs in the Asia-Pacific region. The ranking and accompanying analysis, titled 2007 MIX Asia 100, draw on outreach and performance results from 392 MFIs for the fiscal year 2006.

NAIROBI, Jul 26 (Moneybiz)--Kenya's Equity Bank's first half gross profits rose by 200 percent to 3.037 billion shillings (about 46 million US dollars) during the period ending June 30, 2008. The rapidly expanding bank said in a statement received on Saturday said the performance was as a result of balanced growth, profitability and control systems.

The New Nation - Microfinance institutes are known for the giving out loans to the poor in a country like Bangladesh. That being said, can we also consider microfinance as an environment friendly institute? Since our environment plays a major part in each one of our lives, it is up to big organizations such as ASA or BRAC or Grameen Bank to show us how to really be eco-friendly.