BNP Paribas launches Microfix, a currency-hedging microfinance fund

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.