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Our Mission:

FINCA provides financial services to the world’s lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living.

Our Vision:

To be a global network collectively serving more poor entrepreneurs than any other MFI while operating on commercial principles of performance and sustainability.

Our Organization:

Based in Washington DC, FINCA currently reaches over 900,000 clients through its worldwide network of 21 affiliate programs in Africa, Eurasia, the Greater Middle East, and Latin America. After 25 years of leadership, FINCA's outreach is among the broadest and most comprehensive of today's microfinance networks.

FINCA is comprised of two entities, which work together in partnership:

FINCA International, Inc. is a non-profit entity that raises funds to: drive research and development to enhance microfinance services; create new services that enhance the lives of clients; carry out demographic, market, and social research that allows us to better understand and measure benefits to clients; and maintain FINCA’s ownership level in FINCA Microfinance Holdings.

FINCA Microfinance Holdings (FMH) is a subsidiary of FINCA International, Inc. that leverages the funding of socially-responsible partners like the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, who share FINCA’s mission of providing services to low-income people so they can increase their employment, incomes, and standard of living. FINCA country-based affiliates are held by FMH, creating a global network of shared expertise.

FINCA’s Leadership in the Microfinance Industry

Innovation, Client Commitment, and Highest Business Standards

• FINCA’s structure sets a new standard for the industry as an innovative way to focus on its poverty alleviation mission while mobilizing private and socially-responsible capital, creating positive social impact and financial sustainability. This model encourages more transparency and higher standards of business practices, meeting the rigorous guidelines of the commercial markets as well as the social expectations of the international donor community. 
  
  
• FINCA established a Social Performance Subcommittee of the Board of Directors whose charter includes: ensuring staff receive training to understand the importance of FINCA’s social mission; monitoring organizational activities to ensure that FINCA’s mission remains the basis for client attraction and retention; developing and maintaining social performance indicators that promote and measure the social performance outcomes of its programs; reporting social performance to donors, investors, oversight agencies, and other constituents; and maintaining and leading the development of best social- and customer-protection practices in the microfinance and sustainable service sectors that are devoted to poverty alleviation. 
  
  
• In addition, FINCA identifies, pilots, and partners with other service providers to bring new life-enhancement services to clients, and funds cutting-edge research to track the benefits to clients allowing FINCA to better serve them.
  
  
• In 2009, 93 percent of all funds received by FINCA International were sent to the field to support our programs; 4 percent of funds were used to cover administration costs, and 3 percent covered fundraising activities. 
  
  
• FINCA pioneered “village banking,” which brings together 10 – 15 people in a community –mostly women – who guarantee small loans for each other. These small loans enable them to create income-generating opportunities for themselves.

Unique Approach to Each Community

• FINCA provides clients with a range of financial and other products and services, enabling them to improve their livelihoods, including: savings accounts; group and individual loans; credit-life, short-term disability and hospitalization insurance; home improvement loans; and remittances. 
  
  
• Each country operation is run by a local team of dedicated professionals that possesses intimate knowledge of the local market. This localized, client-driven approach has facilitated FINCA’s global expansion, and will continue to do so in the coming years.
  
  
• Our loan officers are committed to helping clients build successful businesses while ensuring that they are protected from unnecessary risks. Before making loans to clients, we conduct a training process during which clients learn about credit and how to manage cash flows. We also retain a portion of their profits for savings and determine whether they have the capacity to expand their businesses. This type of training is important for our clients’ success as well as for FINCA’s long-term success. 
  
  
• FINCA is firmly committed to fair practices and maintains strict policies on loan collection practices and evaluations. Our loan officers are committed to providing the best possible service to our clients so that they can build successful businesses while ensuring that they are protected from unnecessary risks.