In July 2002, ABN AMRO’s Brazilian subsidiary Banco ABN AMRO Real, which has 2,350 branch offices throughout Brazil, launched Real Microcredito in partnership with Accion. Accion is a non-governmental organization (NGO) specializing in micro-credit worldwide. Currently, the ACCION network operates in 22 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia. Since inception in 1992, Accion-affiliated programs have made $7.6 billion in microloans to more than 4.7 million people. Under this joint venture agreement, Accion provides the technical expertise in micro-lending while ABN AMRO provides its strong financial background, infrastructure and banking network in Brazil. This joint venture is 80% owned by Banco Real and 20% by Accion. Real Microcredito provides credit to entrepreneurs in some of Brazil’s poorest cities. Loans are dispersed for business purposes only, and the average loan size is between $70 and $3,350, with an average first loan of $559 (p.55). As of October, 2005, Real Microcredito had 8,000 clients and a total portfolio of $4.8 million.
Apart from these retail microfinance activities, ABN AMRO is involved on the wholesale side by providing credit to microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India. As of October, 2005 ABN AMRO provided approximately $14 million of credit to 16 MFIs - translating into credit for 160,000 borrowers (p.55). ABN AMRO continues to invest in the microfinance sector and aims to reach one million borrowers by 2009 through its microfinance activities in India.
Additional Resources
1. ING “A Billion to Gain? A study on global financial institutions and microfinance,” February, 20062. AMN AMRO NV
3. International Year of Microcredit 4. Accion
