CERMi News
March 18, 2014
In case you missed it last year, take a look at our video presentation of CERMi (made by the ULB).
Monday, February 3, 2014
Carolina Laureti at Berkeley University
The Centre for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi) congratulates Carolina Laureti for being granted the 2014 ULB Research Fellowship for Visiting Students (Exchange Programme) at the University of California at Berkeley. The Fellowship is offered to outstanding PhD students with the aim of promoting fruitful research collaborations between ULB and UC Berkeley. Carolina Laureti is doing a joint PhD at UMONS & ULB with a CERMi-UMONS-ARC fellowship. She is supervised by Profs. Marc Labie (UMONS) and Ariane Szafarz (ULB). Her mentor in Berkeley is Prof. Alain de Janvry, a world-renowned specialist in economic development and, more specifically, in microfinance.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Simon Cornée wins the EACB award!
We are very pleased to announce that the scientific committee of the second EACB ( European Association of Co-operative Banks) award for young researchers on co-operative banks has, after careful selection and according to the criteria established in the Call for Papers, awarded Simon Cornée (University of Rennes 1, France and CERMi associate researcher) with the joint first place.
As a laureate of the EACB for young researchers on co-operative banks, Simon Cornée will be honoured in an award ceremony during the EACB Academics and MEPs' Day on 1st April 2014 at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Congratulations to Simon Cornée for his achievement!
Monday, December 16, 2013
Marek Hudon wins the NVSQ best paper award!
ARNOVA (Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action) has just distinguished an article co-authored by Marek Hudon, CERMi’s co-director at SBS-EM as the Best Article published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVQS) for 2012. ARNOVA is the U.S.-based, international association committed to strengthening the research on nonprofit organizations, voluntary action, philanthropy and civil society.
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ) is the top ranked journal in its field! It is is an international, interdisciplinary journal for nonprofit sector research dedicated to enhancing our knowledge of nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, and voluntarism by providing cutting-edge research, discussion, and analysis of the field. NVSQ is published bi-monthly and provides a forum for researchers from around the world to publish timely articles from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
The article is co-written by Anaïs Périlleux (Université Catholique de Louvain and former PhD student at CERMi in UMONS) and Eddy Bloy (Université de Lyon). The title of the article is “Surplus Distribution in Microfinance: Differences Among Cooperative, Nonprofit, and Shareholder Forms of Ownership”.
Congratulations to the researchers for this prestigious award!
October 4, 2013
Discover our 9th CERMi Newsletter (October 2013)! What you'll find in this edition :
- Highlight: Major special events in 2013
- Coming events at CERMi
- Recent events at CERMi
- Awards and prizes
- Recent publications by CERMi members
CERMi (Centre Européen de Recherche en Microfinance / Centre for European Research in Microfinance), draws together researchers, involved in microfinance activities in developing countries, from the Centre Emile Bernheim (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles) and from the Warocqué Research Centre (Université de Mons). The CERMi also collaborates with the European Microfinance Programme.
Microfinance provides financial services, including credit, savings and insurance, to poor customers with little or no access to the traditional banking sector. It has come to be regarded as a very important component of strategies aimed at reducing poverty. Over the last decade, the microfinance industry has experienced rapid growth creating a constant demand for new knowledge to help guide its development.
CERMi was created as part of the Académie Wallonie-Bruxelles, with the goal to become an active participant in this process. It aims to study the management of a wide range of microfinance financial institutions, represented by NGOs, cooperatives and commercial companies. Thanks to an interdisciplinary approach, CERMi hopes to make substantive contributions to the body of knowledge on microfinance which will help the industry deal more effectively with its future challenges.
From a microeconomic and managerial perspective, CERMi is undertaking research on institutional aspects including governance and risk management of microfinance institutions, as well as the concept of a client-driven approach toward the development of financial services and products. From a macroeconomic and sociological point of view, CERMi focuses on matters of regulation and local government policy, as well as the roles played by central banks and international donors. Links between microfinance and the traditional banking sector are also analysed, and throughout this research, special attention is given to ethical considerations that are specifically relevant and critical to the evolution of the microfinance industry.