Jul 22
2010
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The $44 billion global microfinance industry got a boost recently as private equity investor BlueOrchard attracted $195 million to a new fund aimed at helping microfinance lenders modernize their organizations, improve governance and risk management, and develop into fully-fledged financial institutions.
The knock-on effect is that as the industry as a whole becomes more standardized, with stronger, regulated and rated institutions, this should attract more investment and help turn microfinance into a recognized asset class, which in turn is good news for small businesses both in the US and globally that benefit from microfinance lending.