ACCION International, a pioneer and leader in global microfinance, has announced the inauguration of ACCION Microfinancas, a new microfinance organization located in Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas in Brazil’s northern region, where access to financial services remains more limited than in most of the country.

ACCION Micro-financas, which launched unofficially when it began lending operations on February 1st of this year, is providing working-capital loans and other financial services to the working poor of Manaus.

It plans to expand to other cities throughout Brazil’s northern region which compriss seven states with a population of about 14.7 million, and is home to an estimated 1.9 million micro-entrepreneurs, where only 8 to 10 per cent of whom have been able to access any kind of financial services from banks or microfinance organizations.

ACCION Micro-financas is ACCION’s second majority-owned microfinance institution, and follows the establishment, in late 2009, of ACCION Microfinance China, in Inner Mongolia, a region which remains similarly underserved by micro-finance.

Co-investors in ACCION Microfinancas include the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and private investors.

ACCION Micro-financas will offer lines of credit, longer-term fixed-asset loans, financial education and, eventually, micro-insurance products and credit cards.

In so doing, it is applying new approaches to best serve the needs of Amazonas micro-entrepreneurs.

These include employment of a credit scoring and a cash flow-based credit assessment model; 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.

Michael Schlein, president and CEO of ACCION said “We’re particularly excited about launching ACCION Microfinancas because it allows ACCION to bring its very best in investment, management services, technical assistance and social performance to bear for the microentrepreneurs of Amazonas.

“It is, for us, something of a return to roots, as it was in Recife, Brazil that ACCION first helped pioneer the concept of microlending in 1973.”

Eduardo Lucchesi, CEO of ACCION Micro-financas, said “ACCION Microfinancas is well-positioned to reach out to the microentrepreneurs of the area and offer products that are convenient and that will, ultimately, help many people to build a far more solid economic future.”

ACCION International is a private, nonprofit organization with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need – microenterprise loans, business training and other financial services -to help work their way out of poverty.

A world pioneer in microfinance, ACCION was founded in 1961 and issued its first microloan in 1973 in Brazil.

Over time, ACCION has helped build 62 microfinance institutions in 31 countries on four continents.