Micro scope widens

Several micro-finance equity funds and collateralised loan obligations have been launched over the past year, with investors attracted to high returns and relatively low default rates. Is micro-finance emerging as an asset class in its own right? By Clive Davidson

When Grameen Bank, a Bangladeshi firm that specialises in providing micro-loans to the poor, and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, it proved that micro-finance has firmly been accepted as an effective way to alleviate poverty in developing countries. And when Geneva-based micro-finance investment intermediary BlueOrchard Finance issued its first stand-alone collateralised loan obligation (CLO) in the same year, it was a sign that micro-finance is also emerging as a