The micro-finance bodies have of late been reporting wrongdoings. They have charged exorbitant interest from self-help groups and other less organised groups of loanees. In some cases, they have charged as high as 50 percent interest on loans literally behaving as loan-sharks. The revelation has come as a shock and the authorities have begun checking the activities of the micro-finance institutions closely. Especially Tamil Nadu has witnessed a high incidence of the MFI related illegal ...

A trio of three institutions- Nabard, the Unique Identification Authority of India and the National Payment Corporation of India would soon pool their resources to set up a Center of Excellence for Rural Financial Institutions in Mumbai. The goal of the center would be to enable rural and cooperative banks and sundry other financial bodies to work more effectively in terms of payment service and financial inclusion. The center would represent a process of modernization and advancement in direct ...

Mr Anand Sinha, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India spoke on the occasion of the launch of the Financial Inclusion program of Cosmos Bank at Pune recently. Since the speech encompassed many areas of Urban Cooperative Banks operation we produce below the text of speech for readers’ benefit Shri Shashikant Bugde, Chairman, Shri Krishnakumar Goyal, Vice-Chairman,  Dr. Mukund Abhyankar and other Directors of the Cosmos Bank, Shri Sudhir Thakre, Secretary, Rural Development, Govt. of ...

Nelson Kuria, CEO of CIC Insurance, Kenya, is Chair of the ICMIF Development Committee, and during the ICMIF Conference last year he took the opportunity to share an update with delegates on the activities of the Development Function within ICMIF and appealed for the help of members in improving access to insurance for those who currently have no access to risk protection. Nelson began by telling delegates that in being at the ICMIF Conference “I feel like I have been born again, renewed and ...