The Inter-American Development Bank is lending USD5 million to a new social investment fund that will support microfinance institutions providing innovative financial solutions across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Social Investment Fund 2010 targets firms that provides traditional microfinance loans bundled with other financial services to businesses and organizations working directly with low-income populations across the region. The fund’s goal is to create a new investment class where investors receive both economic and social returns, IDB explains in a news release.
The fund has raised a total of USD20 million from various individual and private investors. It will be managed by Global Partnerships, a non-governmental organization based in Seattle, Washington.
Meanwhile, IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno and Uruguayan Finance Minister Fernando Lorenzo have signed a USD1.2 million technical cooperation grant agreement for the development of public-private partnerships in Uruguay. The grant will be used to create incentives for private investment in infrastructure projects in the country.
