The paper “Are Microfinance Borrowers in Lebanon Over-Indebted?” presents the results of the research study  that aimed to provide empirical evidence that would confirm or refute indications of cross- and over-indebtedness in Lebanon, to analyze the causes of potential cross- or over-indebtedness, and to formulate recommendations on how  to  address  these. The study was commissioned by  the SANAD Fund for ...

The paper “Microfinance and Business Start-ups: Review of the Current Practice in Europe” explores the theoretical background and the emergent evidence related to the role of access to finance for business start-ups and self-employment in Europe, with a specific focus on the role of microfinance institutions. The paper summarizes opportunities and challenges faced by the microfinance sector to more deeply ...

Financial capability has been a buzz word for almost a decade as more and more financial institutions and other stakeholders recognize that in order to improve financial inclusion, customers need to have the financial capability to use financial services for their benefit. Many institutions are engaged in designing financial capability programs, however, many pilot programs, often donor-driven, have failed to ...

The key aim of these MFC research paper “Financing Gap and SME Employment Growth: Beyond Access to Finance” was to investigate the relation between the perceived changes in financing gap and employment growth by SMEs in the EU. The paper builds on and extends the analysis of SAFE survey data, in order to focus on the question of employment creation which ...

In early October, MFC staff visited Romania to meet with a range of stakeholders (including MFC members Vitas and GoodBee) to discuss how the microfinance sector currently supports start-up businesses, what challenges the sector faces in that work and the opportunities to expand that support in future. Among key issues and ideas we heard was the fact that 1) the ...

  Od 2003 r., w MFC zrealizowaliśmy ponad 50 projektów w 22 krajach. Projekty realizowane w Polsce są naszym laboratorium – ich wynikami dzielimy się z innymi! Moje mieszkanie – moja odpowiedzialność! Celem projektu realizowanego w latach 2015 – 2016 było kształtowanie pozytywnych zachowań młodych dorosłych w zakresie zarządzania finansami osobistymi i własnym mieszkaniem. Usamodzielniający się wychowankowie Młodzieżowych Ośrodków Wychowawczych ...

Funder: USAID     Partner: Republican Microfinance Center       Financial services can be a lifeline to low-income people, when used correctly. We’re working in Belarus to build the capacity of the Republican Microfinance Centre to provide training on budget management and saving to low-income communities. As part of this, our master trainers are rolling out our Plan Your Future and Debt Management ...

In a time of economic slow-down, the idea of financing start-up enterprises in the EU is quite alluring. As such, start-ups (enterprises in early stages of development, generally less than 2 years old) are high on European Commission’s agenda. For this reason, the MFC is taking a deep dive on how microfinance can support start-ups. We will examine existing practices ...

      Financial inclusion is high on the European Union agenda, and we support our members to become effective inclusion advocates. We do this by continually expanding our Financial Inclusion Ambassador Toolkit. We aim at simple, strong and effective initiatives. This June, we held our second annual “Inclusion Ambassadors” award ceremony. We acknowledged four members who not only reach ...

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Fondi Besa (BESA) have signed the first guarantee agreement aimed at supporting micro-enterprises in Albania under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI). This new EaSI guarantee agreement with the non-bank microfinance institution BESA, will cover a loan portfolio of ALL 3 billion (c. €22 million) for micro-borrowers, targeting in particular the ...