- The Foundation’s president will open and moderate the First Plenary Session of the International Microcredit Summit to be held from Monday the 14th of November in Valladolid.
- Furthermore, two of the Foundation’s microfinance institutions, Bancamía and Caja Nuestra Gente, will explain their experience at the Summit.
From its creation in May 2007, the BBVA Microfinance Foundation has granted loans worth in total 2.5 billion euros to entrepreneurs at the base of the pyramid in Latin America, with an average amount loaned of 900 euros.
In under three years and a half, the Foundation has developed a portfolio of 1 million clients via its eight microfinance institutions in Latin America: Banco de las Microfinanzas-Bancamía in Colombia; Caja de Nuestra Gente and Financiera Confianza in Peru; Fondo Esperanza and Emprende Microfinanzas in Chile; Servicios Microfinancieros in Argentina; Corporación para las Microfinanzas in Puerto Rico and Microserfin in Panama.
Recently, its institution in Peru, Caja Nuestra Gente, has been named the Best Microfinance Institution in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2011 as a result of its having reached the most marginalized group, according to the ranking compiled by Mix Market, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Multilateral Investment Fund.
Currently, the Foundation, whose activity area was initially Latin America, employs over 4,700 people and continues to work to establish new operations in other Central American countries as well as Mexico and Brazil.
The main activity of the Foundation is to create and develop microfinance entities in Latin America, and its business model is productive finance: the delivery of financial products and services linked to productive or entrepreneurship activities fostering sustainable economic and social development of the client.
In addition to creating and consolidating this group of institutions, the Foundation develops in a non-profit manner initiatives that contribute towards the development of the sector, particularly in the area of improving good corporate governance and human capital.
Along these lines, the Foundation has written and made available to the sector a “Universal Code for Corporate Governance for Microfinance Institutions” a reference document that establishes the principles and standards that all good governance codes for Microfinance Institutions (MFI) should contain, in accordance with internationally accepted standards and best practices.
As a complementary document to the aforementioned Code, the Foundation has also published a practical Guide to adopting good governance principles in microfinance institutions, in collaboration with experts and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). In addition, it is developing Training Workshops in Corporate Governance for 400 board members of MFIs in eight Latin American countries.
In the area of human capital training, the Foundation is developing training courses for microfinance credit specialists, in collaboration with the UNED and local renowned Universities, which has made it possible to train over 1,250 people since 2009.
Participation of the FMBBVA in the International Microcredit Summit
BBVA Microfinance Foundation president Manuel Méndez del Río Piovich will open and moderate the First Plenary Session of the International Microcredit Summit to be held from Monday the 14th of November in Valladolid. The session will be dedicated to analyzing the role of ethics in financial services and the use of microfinance to eradicate poverty.
Furthermore, the Foundation has organized a session in which two of its institutions, Bancamía (Colombia) and Caja Nuestra Gente (Peru), will give accounts of their experience.
The BBVA Microfinance Foundation is a non-profit organization that aims to promote the sustainable economic and social development of the disadvantaged in society by providing access to productive microfinance.