What’s so Micro about Microfinance?

Mark — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:09:20 +0000

I went to a meeting of the Microfinance Club of New York recently. It was held at Citibank’s offices in 53rd Street, midtown Manhattan. All the talk was about building businesses around remittances, now worth $2bil per annum - and reaching out to the ‘unbanked’ - poverty reduction meets Wall Street. There’s more to microfinance than Grameen Bank and Muhammad Yunus as people familiar with the field well know. But where is Australia in the microfinance world? The GFC as Rudd calls it might be an opportunity for Australians to look more closely at how microfinance can be part of our regional development agenda. Incidentally, ANZ’s subsidiary in Cambodia is already there: http://www.australiantel.tv/video/286938-wing-cambodia.html.

What happened to Time Banks Australia?

Mark — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:58:29 +0000

In 2006 Time Banks Australia were active in Manly, a suburb of Sydney. But they have now disappeared. I’d be interested in any information on what happened there. The USA model set up by Edgar Cahn goes from strength to strength. Check out http://www.timebanks.org/.

swivel.net.au

What’s so Micro about Microfinance?

What happened to Time Banks Australia?