Fringe Meetings

To download the presentations, please click on the speakers' names.

Fringe meeting 1: “Women access to credit: problems and remedies”

Women’s access to credit is an issue seemingly characterised by a paradox. On the one hand, credit sector institutions consider women to be very interesting clients, particularly with respect to consumer credit. On the other hand, women have only restricted access to credit for business or investment. In this workshop, the initial results of a study conductedby Risorsa Donna Foundation as part of the “Integrated Services for the development of the women’ economy” project will be presented. The results of this study highlight the need for structural intervention aimed at facilitating women’s credit access by overcoming obstacles, particularly discrimination against women.

Speakers: Sophie Brana  – Senior Lecturer (University Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV - France); Luigi Campitelli - Director and President (EBN Network BIC Lazio - Italy); Marcella Corsi - Member of the Scientific Committee (Fondazione Risorsa Donna - Italy)

Fringe meeting 2: “European Microcredit Research Award”

In spring 2008, EMN and its Spanish affiliate Fundación Nantik Lum decided to launch the European Microcredit Research Award.This award valued at €1000 honours new research on microfinance in Europe. Following a call for papers in July 2008, the EMN Selection Committee selected the best of 13 papers received. In this workshop, the three laureates for the 2008 Award will present their research papers. The titles of these papers are: “Microfinance as a European policy issue – policy images and venues”, “Microcredit in France: does Gender matter?” (empirical study) and “Making European microfinance more sustainable – lessons from Britain”. Additionally, Foro Nantik Lum will present its last piece of research: “The need for Microcredit Impact Evaluation in Europe”.

Moderator: Silvia Rico – Director (Foro Nantik Lum - Spain)
Speakers: Sophie Brana – Senior Lecturer ( University Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV - France); Pål Vik - Research Assistant
& Karl Dayson – Senior lecturer (Community Finance Solutions University of Salford - UK); Maricruz Lacalle – Co Director (Foro Nantik Lum – Spain); Michael Unterberg – Research assistant (EVERS&JUNG - Germany)

Fringe Meeting 3: “Personal microcredit – a new approach to social inclusion in Europe”

Financial exclusion may be either a cause or a consequence of social exclusion, or both. Access to credit, not only for the creation or the development of a microenterprise but also for personal needs, can be a powerful instrument for helping socially excluded persons to improve their situation. Recently and mostly on an experimental basis, various stakeholders in Europe have started to develop personal or social microcredit, defined as microcredit for financing personal needs, e.g. purchase of a second-hand vehicle, moving, obtaining a driving license, etc. Speakers will share their experiences and the lessons learnt so far from this new approach.

Moderator: Kudejah Ali – Personal Loans Manager (Fair Finance - UK)
Speakers: Patrick Baquin – Director of the Economic and Social Department (Caisse des Dépôts - France); Caroline Evrard – Social Credit Coordinator (Crédal - Belgium); François Soulage – President (Secours Catholique - France)

Fringe Meeting 4: “Credit Scoring Technologies – Leveraging Expert Opinion to Develop Scorecards for Microentrepreneurs”

The clients of ShoreBank International Ltd. (SBI) are improving the speed and quality of micro loan decisions with scoring technology. Their corecard development approach is most impacted by data availability. Where there is lack of loan application data and need for a fast solution, SBI works with the institution’s most experienced lenders to develop an expert scorecard.
SBI believes that a significant number of experts exist within each organization which could contribute to the development of a scorecard. The workshop seeks to provide the participants with an overview of SBI’s experience in credit scoring, followed by an interactive session where participants would collaborate in building a scorecard for microentrepreneurs.

Speakers: Alan Martinez - SBI’s Credit Scoring Practice Manager, assisted by Diana Bialus, Consultant (ShoreBank International Ltd – USA)

Fringe meeting 5: “Financial Education for Vulnerable Adults in Europe”

There is an increasing recognition on financial education as an important tool for assisting vulnerable populations to exit poverty. Financial education enables people to increase their opportunities to gain better control and to better manage their financial resources. In this workshop, experiences from financial education programmes in Europe exclusively aimed at vulnerable groups will be presented.

Speakers: Severine Deboos – Technical Expert (ILO - Hungary); Margarita Lalayan – Consultant (MFC - Poland); Antoine Saint-Denis - Policy Officer Unit Inclusion (DG EMPL – European Commission)