• Today, microfinance
  in the world means:

• Considerable potential

Microfinance is designed to give low-income people access to financial services such as savings, credit and insurance. It promotes growth and helps to improve the standard of living of the poorest people.

An approach based on solidarity
Microfinance institutions help people who are excluded from the conventional banking system. The only condition for obtaining a loan or insurance policy is to make the payments, which are due on a weekly or monthly basis.
These grass-roots organisations offer financial solutions in exchange for just one guarantee: the word of the beneficiaries/borrowers.
Under this system, which is based on trust in the customer (there is no collateral), the repayment rate is usually very high.

From microcredit to microfinance
Microcredit emerged in Bengladesh at the end of 1970s. It grew out of the observation that a minimal amount of money is enough to start or to expand a business.
By making very small loans, Grameen Bank gave the most disadvantaged people a chance to overcome poverty by becoming self-sufficient.
The concept rapidly gained momentum and expanded to other financial services: credit, savings,insurance and that's "microfinance".

Stakeholders
In addition to governments and the local community institutions on which they depend, microfinance institutions (MFIs) receive funding from a variety of sources:

• Private operators
  Their approach is primarily commercial. They focus on a small number of MFIs that have already reached maturity.
  
• Public institutions and international foundations
  They are the main source of funding for the MFIs.
  
• Social business enterprises
  They provide funds in the form of socially responsible investment (SRI).
  

By financing MFIs, these operators make the social impact of their business activity their top priority. Like the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation, their ambition is to give the poor the means they need to become self sufficient, individually and collectively, by providing financing that meets their economic needs.

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• Press Release
  18 february 2008
  (PDF - 41 Ko)