The European Union is offering a webinar for microfinance institutions (MFI) interested in acquiring new skills to support better their women clients. The webinar will lay out the case for gender-sensitive banking and will take place on 24 March 2020. Gender finance is a complex topic that requires not only technical knowledge on the subject, but also a good understanding ...

LEarning, Teaming up and Saving – SAVing groups for Employabiliy and Empowerment, in other words LETS SAVEE, is a new project which MFC is coordinating. The project aims at exploring the potential of saving groups in the European countries context, for improving low income and marginalized group entrepreneurial skills and access to finance. In the current European context, poverty and ...

The Commission presents a Communication on building a strong social Europe for just transitions. It sets out how social policy will help deliver on the challenges and opportunities of today, proposing action at EU level for the months to come, and seeking feedback on further action at all levels in the area of employment and social rights. Already today the ...

Know your client! – this call has never retired. We observe that MFIs underestimate their clients’ digital readiness. “Our clients do not use Internet” we keep on hearing, while the number of clients engaging with Internet grows at great pace. Together with member MFIs, MFC developed a practical set of questions, which help MFIs understand how they can use Internet ...

International Labour Organization has announced a new, free-of-charge e-learning course on Financial Education. This course complements the face-to-face training and awareness raising campaigns that the ILO Financial Education Programme has conducted over the years, training over 100,000 people worldwide. The course provides the e-learners with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to better manage their personal finances. The course is now available free ...

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing a US dollar loan worth the equivalent of up to 4.1 million euros to JSC MFO Crystal- MFC Member, a leading microfinance company in Georgia. This operation will fund micro enterprises with fewer than 10 employees. They will receive loans of up to 25,000 euros that are geared towards women, young people and ...

The new fund called EaSI Funded Instrument has been launched with a loan fund of €200 million to boost the lending capacity of microfinance institutions and social enterprise lenders in Europe. The EaSI Funded Instrument provides senior and subordinated loans to microfinance institutions and social enterprise lenders to boost on-lending to micro-enterprises and social enterprises. In order to support job creation and social inclusion, the EaSI ...

    The meeting in Belgrade gathered representatives of Serbian government and Chamber of Commerce, European Commission, European Investment Fund and many microfinance practitioners and other stakeholders involved. It was supported and facilitated by Microfinance Centre. The aim was to find solutions to improve the regulatory and legal infrastructure in order to assure Serbian financial sector becomes more inclusive. Watch ...

The Commission has launched a 12-week public consultation to evaluate the support to social inclusion by the European Social Fund in the 2014-2018 period. This evaluation will assess: how the European Social Fund (ESF) promotes social inclusion (integrating disadvantaged people into society and ensuring fairer life opportunities for all) and how it combats poverty/discrimination; structural reforms; the visibility, usefulness, relevance, value for ...

EUROPEAN COMMISSION – DIRECTORATE-GENERAL MIGRATION AND HOME AFFAIRS Directorate E: Migration and Security Funds; Financial Resources invites to a seminar on the topic of Smart Use of Finance for Integration of Migrants Impacts and Mechanics to Foster Social Innovation on 14 October 2019 in Brussels There is a considerable potential for financial investments for the benefit of legally residing third- country ...