Breaking Barriers in the Capital Market

A unique event opened yesterday in New York City. For the first time representatives of microfinance institutions and securities issuers met in the same forum, where they had the opportunity to converse with representatives from Wall Street, including international investors, risk-rating agencies and investment banks. Officials from regional stock exchanges and regulatory and supervisory agencies also participated. The purpose of the event Who will buy our paper: Microfinance breaking barriers in the Capital Markets was to promote access by microfinance institutions to capital markets.

In his opening remarks CAF President & CEO Enrique García emphasized the importance of microfinance in the renewed development agenda, in the sense that it promoted economic growth with equity and social inclusion. He reaffirmed CAF’s commitment to support microfinance by creating incentives for its participation in the securities markets. "In over a decade CAF has promoted access to finance in the most disfavored sectors of the region, currently supporting over 35 microfinance institutions in 11 countries, which have demonstrated that it is possible to serve the poor, efficiently with socially profitability," García said.

Acción International President Maria Otero said that microfinance provided the poor with tools to leave poverty, and that the sector was becoming more attractive, efficient and competitive through new initiatives and options in the securities markets,

Can we make investments in microfinance viable on their own merits?

This question was the keynote theme for the first plenary session, chaired by W. Bowman “Bo” Cutter, managing director, Warburg Pinkus; followed by "Who will buy our paper? Is it important? presented by Maria Otero, president and CEO of Acción International.

The sessions that enriched the discussion yesterday and today were: Our paper and who bought them, moderated by Tom Easton, head of The Economist New York office; The creation of investment instruments, moderated by Jim Bunch, investment manager, Omidyar Network; And what about equity investment? What does the future hold? moderated by Rosalind Copisarow, senior vice president, Acción International; Bringing the rating agencies to the table, moderated by Elizabeth Littlefield, CEO, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), World Bank; and What does the future hold for us? moderated by Matthew Bishop, senior business correspondent, The Economist.