BNP Paribas launches its first microfinance loan in South Africa
On 30 August 2017, BNP Paribas South Africa granted its first loan to the Small Enterprise...
15/09/2017
BNP Paribas is demonstrating its commitment to responsible investing and sustainable development by supporting the creation of Microfix, a new currency-hedging microfinance fund. BNP Paribas will provide technical assistance, derivatives expertise and funding. Other Microfix participants are PlaNet Finance (an organisation that combats poverty through microfinance); Corporate Connect (an investment advisor for emergingmarket funds); FMO (the Netherlands Development Agency); and TCX, a currency-hedging fund launched in 2007.
The Microfix fund will help expand capital markets in developing countries by working with Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and investors around the world to better understand, quantify and reduce currency risk via hedging products. MFIs make loans to borrowers in local currencies, yet their own funding is in dollars or euros; Microfix provides a currency-hedging solution to this problem.