FINCA (Foundation for International Community Assistance)

Working worldwide for over 20 years, FINCA provides financial services to the world's lowest income entrepreneurs so they can create their own jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living.

Why do we exist?

FINCA supports the working poor in 19 countries worldwide by bringing them small loans and savings services. They invest these small loans in their own tiny businesses, making their work more productive, growing their businesses, and increasing family income. Commercial banks will not serve our clients because they are too poor and have little to offer as collateral; they see the working poor as “high risk.” Yet FINCA lends tens of millions of dollars to low-income families each year, and our on-time repayment rate stands at better than 96%--far better than most commercial banks expect on their loans. “FINCA has done a lot for me. FINCA had confidence in me, unlike the banks, who told my husband and I when we asked for a loan, ‘You are old and you will die before you can repay us.’” – Celerina Romero Hernandez, 71, FINCA Mexico client.

Working capital is vital to the growth of any business, no matter how small. By joining a FINCA Village Banking group, even poor families can obtain credit, and can invest it in their enterprises. Microloans are a renewable resource, which can impact entire communities. A loan is borrowed, invested, and repaid, after which it can be used to stimulate yet another fledgling business. FINCA loans circulate throughout low-income communities until their effect is multiplied many times.

We are not a charity, but a social service organization that is run like a business. All our programs strive to eventually cover their operating costs with income from lending activities.

What have you accomplished?

In Ecuador, Martha Olinda Merino and her husband baked and sold bread, but they earned only $460 per year in a country where the average annual income is $1,241. Over the course of a year and three FINCA loans, Martha transformed her bakery into a small convenience store. With an investment of $350, Martha’s business tripled in size, earning a profit of $1,247 for the year, and allowing Martha and her husband to set aside nearly $500 in savings.

In 1999 alone, FINCA lent $40 million to 121,000 women and men like Martha and her husband, for a family average of $331. That may not seem like much, but in the countries where we work, it’s a fortune. In Malawi, it is nearly six months’ worth of the average wage; in Haiti it is four and a half months; in Nicaragua, two and a half months. Today, FINCA serves more than 160,000 families on five continents. Those families have accumulated over $7 million in savings.

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