In international terms, BNP Paribas is refinancing microfinance institutions in the emerging countries in which the bank is present, mainly in local currency. The group’s Microfinance unit acts in cooperation with 23 microfinance institutions in 12 countries. It has made loans totalling over €50 million with aggregate credit lines amounting to €76 million. More than 400,000 borrowers have benefited (80% of them women), and if their family members are also included, more than 2 million people worldwide have felt the positive effects of the loans. The countries concerned include Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Guinea Conakry, India, Mali, Morocco, Madagascar, Mexico, Senegal, the Philippines and Tunisia.

The Microfinance Team works in close cooperation with about a hundred collaborators from within the bank group itself, most of whom work in, or with, the international networks of the BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) division and International Retail Services (IRS) division.

The credit is assigned a partial guarantee from the French Development Agency (AFD). As part of the cooperation agreement signed on 16 March 2007 between BNP Paribas and the AFD, which is aimed at fostering various joint projects, most notably in the field of microfinance, certain loans are secured through partial guarantees from the AFD.

Country Focus

India, where microfinance first began

In 2007, India overtook Bangladesh as the largest microcredit market in the world, with an estimated 25 million borrowers. Over a hundred institutions are listed in the MIX Market (Microfinance Information eXchange) database. BNP Paribas has approved € 13.5 million of credit for 8 client institutions who are among the market leaders in the field. The market has grown by 50%, but in the case of some institutions the activity has seen growth rates of over 100%. With 300 million poor – that is, with one quarter of the population living on less than a dollar a day – the potential for microfinance in India is huge.

BNP Paribas supports microfinance in Mali

BCIM, the International Bank for Commerce and Industry in Mali, is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas. It has signed a loan agreement with the microfinance institution Miselini for a sum of 150 million CFA francs, equivalent to € 230,000.

Miselini (meaning “hour hand” in Bambara) was founded in 1999 and has grown in the underprivileged areas of Bamako and its surroundings. With more than 16,000 active borrowers, the association mainly targets groups of women with the aim of supporting their efforts in business and in crafts.

The financing enables the range of financial products on offer to be widened (launch of individual loans) and allows Miselini’s field of activity to be extended in a context where the low saving capacity of members acts as a brake on the development of its operations.

BNP Paribas and the AFD sign a cooperation framework agreement