Brazil
Brazil was the keystone of our work in microfinance. In 1972, Accion began a small pilot program, called UNO, in the northeastern city of Recife that proposed to help people living in poverty by offering very small loans to a sector of the population no one thought worthy of credit. Within four years, UNO had provided almost 900 loans, helping to create or stabilize nearly 1,400 jobs. Since then, Accion has partnered successfully with banking institutions to expand access to financial services. In 2011, Accion opened Accion Microfinanças, a majority-owned microfinance institution in northern Brazil.
Partners
Accion Microfinanças
CrediAmigo (Banco do Nordeste)
Santander Microcrédito (Grupo Santander Brasil)
Our Work in Brazil
After many years of working with partners CrediAmigo and Santander Microcrédito, in 2011 Accion began operating Accion Microfinanças, a new microfinance institution in the densely populated northern city of Manaus. Brazil’s northern region, comprised of seven states, is home to an estimated two million microentrepreneurs, only about 10 percent of whom have received any kind of loan from a bank or microfinance institution.
Accion Microfinanças is applying new approaches to best serve the needs of the region’s microentrepreneurs including use of credit scoring and cash flow-based credit assessment models; making use of Brazil’s extensive correspondent banking system to partner with banks and extend services through retail stores and other outlets; and deploying payment technologies such as PDAs, prepaid bank cards and mobile banking. Our objective in Brazil is to help strengthen microfinance institutions so that they are able to effectively and sustainably provide microfinance services to the region’s microentrepreneurs.
Current Initiatives
Microfinance Services
We provide ongoing support in the development and delivery of Microfinance services to Accion Microfinanças, CrediAmigo and Santander Microcrédito. We have successfully partnered with these institutions in the areas of credit methodology, product design and management services.
Learn more about our Microfinance Services >>
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