Frontier Finance International (FFI) helps build sustainable financial institutions that provide socially responsible banking products for micro, small and medium enterprises, underserved households and farmers. FFI and its banking partners reach millions of enterprises in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. Our focus is on increasing access to finance by creating targeted products and building permanent capacity in the financial sector.

 

Our Approach

FFI's strength is building sustainable institutions that work at a meaningful scale and target sectors that are constrained by inadequate access to finance. Ideally, we are also creating models that are replicable across national boundaries. We work with existing commercially oriented financial institutions and banks that we help start from scratch.

Beyond Banking: we continuously innovate and build upon our capacity in order to design and deliver new financial products that address critical development challenges. Thus our dual focus on the enterprise sector and green finance.   

 

Our Values

As part of our core values, we are deeply committed to principles of transparency, social responsibility, service orientation, and the maintenance of high professional standards. A responsible attitude toward the environment is a firm part of our understanding of who we are.

 

 

OUR WORK

 

Frontier Finance International has two main practice areas:

Access to Finance, in particular product design and capacity building in new and existing financial institutions in order to create commercially viable operations that increase the access of very small, small and medium enterprises to credit and requisite financial services at meaningful scale; and

Green Finance including new product development and design and implementation of capacity building programs. The goal is to help create new markets for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), clean water, sustainable agriculture, and other environmentally relevant business. We are also active in greening banking premises and occupant behavior.

 

Outreach - We also promote responsible banking practices and Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy in local communities

 

 

SMALL BUSINESS FINANCE

Capacity Building for Scaled-up Finance

 

FFI's small business finance advisory work focuses on building permanent capacity in the financial sector to provide very small, small and medium enterprises with credit and requisite financial services. When working with existing banks, we help make fundamental changes in their procedures, market positioning, personnel policy and training, MIS, branch delegation policies, and so forth in order to achieve scale, profitability and sustainability. When working with greenfield banks we help implement highly efficient target group oriented systems and procedures from the out-set.

We provide long-term consultancy, including:

-Business and management support for partner banks and microfinance institutions

-Design and implementation of sustainable structures for small business finance bank-wide

-Recruitment and training of credit and credit-related staff

-Ongoing skills development for credit staff and management

-Developing training materials and training departments

-Setting-up systems for risk management, portfolio quality control, MIS, etc.

-Branch network expansion, including into rural areas and underserved areas

-Setting up full service target group oriented banks from scratch

-Transformation of non-bank financial institutions into supervised banks

Short-term consulting services include:

-Training and skills development in specific areas (e.g. risk management, anti-crisis measures, agricultural finance, etc.)

-Financial sector studies and studies on special topics (e.g. low income housing, savings mobilization)

-Feasibility studies and business plans for the establishment of microfinance institutions

-Capacity strengthening in specific areas (e.g. finance, risk, savings, HR, marketing)

 

 

 

GREEN FINANCE

Scaling-Up to Make a Difference

 

FFI's goal is to help build the market for green technologies by working with both providers of green technologies and end-users. We are designing green finance products, creating capacity within financial institutions to analyze green technologies, sourcing capital for expanding green portfolios, and building awareness among businesses, households and communities. We hope to make green finance into a "normal" financial product that is widely disseminated and easily accessible to households and businesses. 

Bridging the finance gap: we are creating linkages with manufacturers, trade associations and research institutes working on green technologies, particularly their dissemination. Often there are sound technologies but finance is not available in local communities to cover their up-front costs. We want to bridge this gap for viable projects.

For Financial Institutions ('FIs'), we undertake the following activities:

-Develop loan products and other financial instruments, processes, and procedures for EERE technologies taking into account technical specifications, pay-back periods, emissions, etc.

-Implement credit lines to finance EERE technologies for households and MSME clients

-Conduct market analysis on energy sector prices and policies, supply structure, end-use demand, market participants, EERE providers, product information

-Portfolio reviews to understand client needs and demand patterns

-Institutionalize EERE finance by creating a dedicated EERE group within the FI and increasing awareness at all levels of the FI

-Strengthen staff through technical training of lending personnel, management seminars and train the trainers programs

-Implement tools for measuring and monitoring energy savings and CO2 emissions reductions

-Mobilize demand through marketing, PR, and client awareness, and by supporting energy audits, providing information on various technologies, etc.

-Green branches through programs to change FI staff behavior (recycling, new procurement policies, etc.) and through retrofits to existing buildings and building new premises with green principles in mind

 

 

 

OUTREACH

FFI promotes responsible banking practices and energy efficiency/renewable energy in local communities. 

ProCredit Holding and individual ProCredit banks are especially active in this area with on-going public service capmpaigns and outreach programs.