Contrary to what you might think, this video isn’t about hippies with flowers in their hair, but rather a different type of flower power in the form of Bach flower therapy, explained to us here by microfinance marketing professor Maria Lopez-Escorial. Prof. Lopez-Escorial is committed to making this world a better place. In order to achieve this…
DetailsProf Marco Trombetta of IE Business School shares his recent executive development experience in Ghana. Cape Coast, November 2012. In a hot room where computers share the space with solar power charged lamps, Master in Finance students at IE Business School are asking questions to Veronica Kitti CEO of Alternative Sets of Assistance (ASA) Initiative,…
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IE Focus | By Maria Luque, Professor at IE Business School
Microfinance has proved to be a prime tool in the fight against poverty, but it is not enough to eradicate it once and for all.
Microfinance, namely the provision of financial services for people on low incomes, has taken giant strides since the 1970s. It provided financial services for some 200 million people in 2011 according to the Microcredit Summit Campaign, and now impacts the lives of around 1 billion.
Microfinance institutions face big challenges. One such challenge is the impact of the world economic crisis which began to show in 2008, and which, according to Deutsche Bank Research, has caused a deceleration in the growth of assets, a drop in profitability, and a greater risk for portfolios. Another is the excessive focus on profit and the accelerated growth of some institutions, without the necessary institutional capacities or control. Even so, the microfinance industry continues to grow steadily and has demonstrated that in the right conditions it is a key tool in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Until recently we focused on talking about microfinance as a tool that could lift people out of extreme poverty, promote production, and empower women, all of which are development Millennium Development Goals and indispensable factors to strengthen economic and social growth in developing countries. But growth and investment in assets are not the only things that access to financial services brings.
DetailsIn recent years the need to close the gap between developed and developing countries has become increasingly urgent, particularly in the shadow of the current economic crisis. The corporate world is aware of its growing role in socio-economic development and increasingly the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) movement enables it to assume this role in a…
DetailsA group of students from the IE Masters in Finance progams assesed the development of microfinance institutions in Ghana. The microfinance initiative “Financieros Sin Fronteras” (FSF) created by an IE fellow in collaboration with IE provides consultancy services to microfinance institutions internationally. Eight students from the Master in Finance and the Executive Master in Financial…
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