See Ignacio Mas from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Speak on Mobile Banking Tonight

Everyone needs a safe place to save. Formal savings services need to be accessible conveniently and affordably from every village and every neighborhood. Technology, and in particular cellphones, offer an opportunity to rethink financial service distribution models and substantially reduce the cost of serving poor people.
Please join Ignacio Mas for a discussion on the role [...]

Microfinance’s Circular Firing Squad

Why Kiva should ignore the critics and continue on with the business of revolutionizing microfinance.

UPDATE: Careers in Microfinance

Fewer than 10 tickets remain for the pre-event reception, so purchase now if you are interested.

GuyCarp Microinsurance Grant

Feb 24, 2009 — Global reinsurance specialist Guy Carpenter Co., LLC has been awarded a grant by the Microinsurance Innovation Facility to develop a reinsurance facility for microinsurance and microfinance company operations (MFIs). (full article)

Gates Foundation to Fund Mobile Banking Initiatives

Feb 18, 2009 — The GSMA, which intends to represent the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced a programme that could expand the availability of financial services to millions of people in the developing world through mobile phones. The Mobile Money for the Unbanked programme, [...]

The Microcredit Summit Campaign was the recipient of a $700,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  The grant will help the Campaign measure progress toward its goal of ensuring that 100 million families rise above the $1 a day threshold by 2015. (Full Article)