Improving Flows of Foreign Capital to the
Microfinance Industry
Media and Resources
- Cautious Resilience: The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Microfinance in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Video of speech to U.S. House of Representatives Committee
- The State of Microfinance MIV Investment Survey 2009
- 2010 MIV Survey Report
- 2010 MIV Survey Summary
- 2010 MIV Survey Presentation
Damian von Stauffenberg
Damian von Stauffenberg is the founder of MicroRate, the world’s first rating agency specializing in microfinance. Through its Latin American and African subsidiaries, MicroRate has conducted well over 400 ratings of microfinance institutions in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Before dedicating himself to microfinance, Mr. von Stauffenberg worked for 25 years in the World Bank and its private sector affiliate, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). In the past, Mr. von Stauffenberg has been closely associated with a number of institutions that have played pioneering roles in connecting microfinance to capital markets. He has been president of Seed Capital Development Fund (SCDF), chairman of the Investment Committee of Profund, chairman of the executive committee of MicroVest and member of the executive committee of the Latin American Challenge Investment Fund, LA-CIF.
About the Project
Pilot Project seeks to promote long-term growth in microfinance by facilitating informed investment through improved transparency. While objective, reliable investment information is taken for granted in today’s investment fund industry, there is currently no independent source of information for microfinance funds, putting investors at risk and endangering sustainable, long-term growth in the sector. The MIIS – Pilot Project will leverage MicroRate’s vast microfinance experience to develop a framework for evaluating and disseminating information about microfinance funds, known in the industry as microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs).
About Microrate
MicroRate is the premier microfinance rating agency, dedicated to evaluating performance and risk in microfinance institutions (MFIs). As the oldest and most well-respected organization of its kind, MicroRate was founded to promote growth in the microfinance industry by facilitating fund-ing flows through independent evaluation and increased transparency. Since its founding in 1997, MicroRate has conducted over 450 ratings of 200 MFIs throughout Latin America, Africa and Europe.
Entrepreneurs create products, services and jobs. They expand economies, improve people's lives, provide employment (high and rising wages) and bring about competition. A competitive environment, in turn, gives rise to efficiency, meritocracy and further innovations and entrepreneurial drive.
The potent combination of entrepreneurship and technological innovation can forge an environment that is conducive to further enterprise, involving even government policy in supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.
