Corporate governance

The BBVA Microfinance Foundation knows that a good system of corporate governance requires an organizational structure with well-designed reporting lines, anchored in accountable, consistent and transparent behavior, with efficient procedures for identifying, managing and reporting risk.

The Foundation has been running corporate governance training workshops since 2011 as a pro-bono contribution to the development and transformation of the microfinance sector, in order to raise awareness of good governance as a strategic differentiator that must be integrated into all institutions’ organizational cultures.

The idea of the Foundation’s workshops is to provide the keys, skills and abilities needed to translate the principles of good corporate governance into practical guidelines for action to strengthen efficiency, socio-economic performance and market access, while promoting the need to identify stakeholders’ expectations and demands to engage them and integrate them within the company’s strategy.

In short, to create awareness of the importance of using good governance in management as a real competitive advantage, explaining the main risks facing institutions that lack good governance principles in their processes, and providing the tools that participants need to assess the degree to which good governance has been implemented in their institution.

The workshops are designed for professionals who want to develop the competences necessary in strategic management and planning, with the aim of spearheading the changes needed to consolidate their entities as institutions that are solid and sustainable in the long term.

Workshops held

So far, the Foundation has conducted 11 workshops for over 450 participants, including members of directors’ and senior management boards, executive presidents, advisors, consultants, etc., of financial and microfinance institutions, SMEs, associations, foundations, savings and loans, cooperatives, public and private administrations.

The workshops have taken place in Colombia, Peru, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, in partnership with prestigious bodies that are important in this sector, such as Abancord, Asomif, Banca de las Oportunidades, Bancoldex, Fepcmac, Redcamif/Redcom, local regulatory bodies and universities like ESAN University and San Pablo Catholic University.

Corporate Governance Code for Microfinance Institutions

Another of the Foundations’ initiatives to promote good corporate governance in the microfinance sector’s institutions has been to provide access to its Corporate Governance Code for Microfinance Institutions, compiled to provide those bodies and individuals that are responsible for leading microfinance institutions, and particularly the governing and senior management bodies, with an instrument to help them transpose the general principles of good corporate governance into guidelines for action.

The Code contains good practice, rules and principles that the Foundation considers to be fundamental for any microfinance institution’s good governance, whatever its legal structure (companies, financial institutions, NGOs, cooperatives, associations, foundations, etc).