EVENTS 

CGAP Seminar - Banking on Mobiles: Why, How, for Whom?:  (October 1, 2008) This is a half-day seminar that will explore questions such as how to design systems that use banking agents while safeguarding the interests of customers and agents and can mobile phone banking really fulfill its potential, and how do microfinance institutions participate.

ANNOUNCEMENTS 

Microfinance Technology Survey Offers Chance to Win Free Consulting Services:  Whether you're a small MFI or a big organization, your responses will help build a picture and create awareness of what's going on around information technology for the microfinance industry.

Funder Training Registration:  The next CGAP/MFMI training course for funders, "Building Inclusive Financial Systems: How Can Funders Make a Difference?", will be held in Croatia, September 8-12, 2008.

CGAP LATEST PUBLICATIONS

Variations in Microcredit Interest Rates:  This Brief provides examples that show that the reasons for differences in interest rates can be manifold and often tend to be highly country specific.

Banking on Mobiles: Why, How, for Whom?:  This Focus Note examines how banks can translate the potential of mobile phones into greater financial access for poor people.

MFI Appraisal Guide:  This publication includes a technical guide with essentials for an appraisal; a resource manual; and a spreadsheet to generate summary tables.

Foreign Capital Investment in Microfinance:  So far, the vast bulk of private investment in microfinance is socially motivated, says this Focus Note, written by Xavier Reille and Sarah Forster.