About Microfin

The Microfin Group is a regional finance institution providing loans and financial services to owners of micro-enterprises in the Caribbean. Microfin provides a business partnership, not charity, offering loans within the range US$500 to US$50,000.

Acknowledging that micro-entrepreneurs are usually without major assets as security for bank loans, Microfin has introduced the concept of using business and personal references as collateral thereby stressing the character of the entrepreneur. Our one-on-one relationships, which include regular visits to clients' places of business, are thus a vital part of our lending operations.

Please visit our website, www.microfin.org for Annual Reports.

Partnerships

European Investment Bank (www.eib.org)

The task of the European Investment Bank, the European Union's financing institution, is to contribute towards the integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion of the Member Countries.

To this end, it raises on the markets substantial volumes of funds which it directs on the most favourable terms towards financing capital projects according with the objectives of the Union.

MIF (www.iadb.org/mif)

Since its inception in 1993, the Multilateral Investment Fund's (MIF) guiding principle has been clear: to promote broad-based economic growth through private sector development, particularly microenterprises and small businesses.

Using both grants and investments, MIF actively seeks partners to help test, and then demonstrate, the effectiveness of innovative ideas. MIF's projects are intended to become self-sustaining and potentially to reach a scale capable of changing the lives of millions of people throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Caribbean Development Bank (www.caribank.org)

Caribbean Development Bank is a regional financial institution dedicated to contributing to the harmonious economic growth and development of the member countries in the Caribbean.

Caribbean Microfinance Network (www.caribmicro.net)

The Microfin Group is pleased to belong to the Caribbean Microfinance Network (CMN). Networks are important for the successful development of a microfinance industry and are spread throughout the world. We must encourage a regional approach that brings together large and small MFI coupled with supportive institutions. We believe that CMN will play an essential role in the development of the microfinance industry throughout the Caribbean. In particular, CMN will help overcome dis-economies in activities that can be managed regionally such as training. This is important because in most Caribbean countries the markets for microfinance are small and widely dispersed because of small population size spread over rural areas.

We are particularly pleased to be a member of the CMN because it is also a member of a larger Latin American and Caribbean Network.

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