Triple Jump Co-Invests with FINCA, IFC

JUNE 2011 – On behalf of the ASN-Novib Microfinance Fund Triple Jump invests USD 5 million in a new socially-responsible investment partnership for microfinance, FINCA Microfinance Holdings (FMH). FMH is a collaboration between FINCA International and the renowned international social investors IFC, KfW, FMO, responAsibility and Triple Jump.

“This is a great step forward for Triple Jump”, says Erik Geurts, Senior Equity Investment Officer of Triple Jump. “This investment puts Triple Jump in the frontline of large scale investments in micro finance.”

FINCA Microfinance Holdings was created to enable a million capital investment from socially-responsible investment institutions that are committed to the microfinance sector and have long-term relationships with FINCA

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, will make its largest single equity investment in the microfinance sector through FMH at a total of USD 35 million. Other partners include, as mentioned above, KfWBankengruppe, the German development bank, which is investing USD 15 million; FMO, the Netherlands development bank, which is also investing Euros approximating USD 14 million; responsAbility Global Microfinance Fund, an investment fund advised by the Zurich-based asset manager responsAbility Social Investments AG, which is investing USD 5 million; and Triple Jump invests, as mentioned, USD5 million.

FINCA International (The Foundation for International Community Assistance) is a non-profit, microfinance organization, founded by John Hatch in 1984. Sometimes referred to as the "World Bank for the Poor" and a "poverty vaccine for the planet". FINCA International is the innovator of the village banking methodology in microcredit and is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern day microfinance. With its headquarters in Washington, D.C., FINCA has tens of affiliated host-country institutions (affiliates), in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Along with Grameen Bank and Accion International, FINCA is considered to be one of the most influential microfinance organizations in the world.

FINCA Microfinance Holdings “is a natural next step in our evolution as an institution focused on serving the lowest-income women and men in the developing world,” FINCA President and CEO Rupert Scofield said. “FMH strikes the right balance between attracting the capital needed for expansion and protecting the integrity of our charitable mission, and will allow us to strengthen existing operations, deliver new and improved products and services, and make much more loan capital available to millions more people in need.”

FMH, a first-of-its-kind, socially-responsible investment partnership for microfinance, was formulated to strike the right balance between attracting capital needed for expansion and protecting the integrity of FINCA’s charitable mission. It is expected to help FINCA nearly double its client base to 1.5 million people across its network'.

In addition to enabling growth, the creation of FMH will allow FINCA to provide new financial and life enhancement services, like savings accounts and insurance products, that clients can use to build safer, more secure livelihoods; and create efficiencies in the FINCA network that will help drive down its costs of doing business.