13 The Good, the Bad, and the Poor
Chapter 10 Blowing the Whistle from Mongolia
2. Press releases section of MicroRate website, August 2009. Also reproduced on book website.
3. Or, more accurately, the “expiration” of its rating. LAPO’s own rebuttal to the press release referred to it three times as a withdrawal, so I use LAPO’s term. The LAPO response to MicroRate’s press release is available on book website.
4. Lift Above Poverty Organization (LAPO), Nigeria (Dakar: Planet Rating, 2009).
The Planet Rating LAPO report is available at www.planetrating.com/EN/girafe- ratings.html and on book website.
5. Ibid., p. 1.
6. Ibid., p. 4n7.
7. Ibid., p. 5n11.
8. Ibid., p. 5.
9. Ibid., p. 6.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., p. 9n22.
12. Ibid., p. 10n26.
13. Ibid., p. 12.
14. Ibid., p. 7.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid., passim; see esp. p. 11.
17. Ibid., pp. 12–13.
18. Receipt of $25 investment on book website.
19. See book website for full letter.
20. All photos are on the book website, www.microfinancetransparency.com. ASN Novib’s is visible online, on p. 19 of the February 2008 Spaarmotief magazine on the ASN website, www.asnbank.nl/blob.asp?id=13844; screenshots from the
NOTS Foundation and Calvert/MicroPlace websites appear on book website;
Calvert Foundation’s photo can be seen on
www.flickr.com/photos/7746754@N05/1640836254/.
21. Available on book website.
22. She was promoted to president and CEO in 2011.
23. Full video on
http://financialserv.edgeboss.net/wmedia/financialserv/hearing012710.wvx.
24. See the second paragraph of page 2 of his testimony, available at
www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/hr_012110.shtml.
25. See video at
http://financialserv.edgeboss.net/wmedia/financialserv/hearing012710.wvx (1 hr 48 minutes in).
26. Robert Pouliot, “Governance, Transparency, and Accountability in the
Microfinance Investment Fund Industry,” in Ingrid Matthọus-Maier and J.D. von Pischke, eds., Microfinance Investment Funds: Leveraging Private Capital for Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2007), p. 150.
27. See video at
http://financialserv.edgeboss.net/wmedia/financialserv/hearing012710.wvx (1 hr 43 minutes in).
Chaper 11 Enter the New York Times
1. Neil McFarquhar, “Banks Making Big Profits From Tiny Loans,” New York Times, April 13, 2010.
2. The very first estimate on Kiva regarding LAPO’s interest rates was a mere 24 percent.
3. See, for example, Stephanie Strom, “Confusion on Where Money Lent via Kiva Goes,” New York Times, November 8, 2009.
4. See pp. 12–13 of the 2009 Planet Rating: “The insufficient transparency in
reporting to funders in December 2008, combined with the Nigerian economic crisis, detracted some potential investors in 2009 and contributed to a request for early repayment.”
5. See, for example, http://mubi.com/topics/kiva-change-the-world-one-loan-at-a- time.
6. Strom, “Confusion on Where Money Lent via Kiva Goes.”
7. See www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,1028.160.html. Pictures also on book website.
8. Lauren Smiley, “Kiva’s Microloans Underwriting Cockfighting in Peru,” SF Weekly, February 27, 2008.
9. See Kiva Lending Team: Kivans Against Cockfighting Loans, www.kiva.org/team/kacl.
10. See the Skoll Foundation website, www.socialedge.org/blogs/kiva- chronicles/archive/2008/03/29/cockfighting.
11. Note the discussion at www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,3447.msg77346.html msg77346.
12. See, for example, the account at www.kiva.org/lend/21967, together with a photo showing large bags of coca leaves.
13. Dave Algoso, “Truth in advertising: ChildFund, Kiva, and Bolsa Família,” Find What Works blog, September 10, 2010,
http://findwhatworks.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/truth-in-advertising-childfund- kiva-and-bolsa-familia/. See also “Disappointing: Kiva Is Hosting Loan-Sharks,” A Division by Zer0 blog, http://dbzer0.com/blog/disappointing-kiva-is-hosting-loan- sharks.
14. See the Kiva Microfunds IRS Form 990 2009, p. 50,
http://cms.kiva.org.s3.amazonaws.com/Kiva_Form_990_-_2009.pdf.
15. Ibid., p. 45.
16. Kiva Microfunds (A Nonprofit Organization) Financial Statements for the Years Ended December 31, 2010 and 2009, p. 16, available at
http://cms.kiva.org.s3.amazonaws.com/2010%20Kiva%20Audited%20Financials.pdf 17. Ibid., p. 4.
18. Kiva Microfunds Financial Statements for 2010 and 2009, pp. 5–6.
19. “Infoporn: Kiva’s Microloan Map of the World,” Wired (February 2012); see www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/02/start/kiva. Kiva lending in 2010 was
£45.5 million (not USD), suggesting that my figure is in fact conservative.
20. A typical fund would charge its investors $1.2 million to lend $60 million, whereas Kiva received $13.7 million from all sources, 13.7/1.2 = 11 (approximately).
21. Reported at
www.triplejump.eu/news/Triple+Jump+with+Desjardins+in+Africa/3290/.
22. See Triple Jump B.V. Financial Statements 2010,
www.triplejump.eu/upload/media/Triple_Jump_BV_Financial_
Statements_2010.pdf.
23. The increases in net equity were $5.3 million for Kiva versus €650,000 for Triple Jump on respective portfolios of $60 million versus €240 million.
24. See the Kiva partner web pages at www.kiva.org/partners/107,
www.kiva.org/partners/18 and www.kiva.org/partners/158, respectively.
25. See the Kiva partner web page for ASI Federal Credit Union, www.kiva.org/partners/200.
26. Reported on Kiva Microfunds IRS Form 990 2010, pp. 18–28,
http://cms.kiva.org.s3.amazonaws.com/Kiva_Form_990_-_2010.pdf.
27. Kiva Microfunds Financial Statements for 2010 and 2009, p. 5.
28. Report on MiCredito, Kiva.org, July 7, 2011, www.kiva.org/partners/176.
29. Available at www.mixmarket.org/node/27819/report.
30. The latest statistics are at www.kiva.org/about/stats.
31. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiva_%28organization%29; also see the section entitled “Full-repayment frequency uncertainty,” just above the section
“Bloodsports.”
32. On www.facebook.com/kiva?sk=info.
33. All emails are reproduced on the book website.
34. Flannery to the author, March 9, 2009.
35. “New York Times Article on Microfinance Interest Rates and Profits,”
http://kivanews.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-york-times-article-on- microfinance.html.
36. See www.kiva.org/partners/20.
37. Full press release on book website, or www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBsQFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmembers.weforum.org%2Fpdf%2Fschwabfound%2Fseoy%2FPressRelease_SEOY2010_Africa.doc&ei=4X7OTuGdHYrf0QGri- 2sAw&usg=AFQjCNFn1kq1O3kt4XwNtYFRiBG0hluOgg.
38. See the Schwab Foundation Board of Directors,
www.schwabfound.org/sf/AboutUs/Board/index.htm.
39. See Grameen Foundation USA Board of Directors,
www.grameenfoundation.org/who-we-are/people/board-of-directors Muhammad%20Yunus,%20 Director,%20Emeritus.
40. Alex Counts, “What Is the True Cost of Microfinance,” Grameen Foundation, www.grameenfoundation.org/what-true-cost-microfinance.
41. Original press release on book website, removed from LAPO website.
42. The newsletter Connections (Fall 2007), removed from its website; copy on book website, or from MIX Market:
www.mixmarket.org/sites/default/files/medialibrary/10001.652/
GrameenFoundationNewsletterFall2007.pdf.
43. “LAPO: Case Study on Due Diligence by Microfinance Funders,” Givewell blog, http://blog.givewell.org/2010/10/13/lapo-case-study-on-due-diligence-by-
microfinance-funders/.
44. Lift Above Poverty Organization (LAPO), Nigeria (Dakar: Planet Rating, 2011).
Available by subscription only: see www.planetrating.com.
45. Ibid., p. 7.
46. Ibid., p. 1.
47. Ibid., p. 4.
48. Ibid., p. 5.
49. Ibid., p. 7.
50. See http://tomheinemann.dk/; a preview of the documentary is available on this site.
51. Minute 28 of the documentary.
52. The video footage of this question is on the book website and was provided by Tom Heinemann.
53. The full response is on the book website.
54. Nisha Koul, “Microcapital Brief,” MicroCapital.org, October 17, 2011,
www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-responsibility-loans-local-currency- equivalent-of-4m-to-microfinance-institutions-pearl-microfinance-limited-of- uganda-lift-above-poverty-organisation-of-nigeria-sinapi-abatrus/.
55. See www.smartcampaign.org/about-the-campaign/campaign-sponsors, as well as the footnote buried at the bottom of the website: “An initiative of The Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International.”