IFC launches $100-M microfinance fund

MANILA, Philippines - The International Finance Corp. (IFC), a private sector investment member of the World Bank Group, along with two other investors is setting up a $100-million debt fund called Microfinance Initiative for Asia (MIFA), to tackle the funding need of microfinance institutions in developing and underdeveloped economy. The MIFA Fund will be funded from three classes, firstly by investors like IFC, KfW (Reconstruction Credit Institute, German Bank) and then by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.?The fund is targeted to a size of $100 million, with up to $25 million in donors’ concessional funding. With this fund, IFC intends to bring a change in Asian growing market for microfinance institutions (MFIs). Since most of the MFIs are unable to tackle the problem, funds are provided for longer terms in the form of funds and subordinated debt products.