4 June 2013
CERMi Seminar
"Creating a new legal form: the GmbH"
with Prof. Timothy W. Guinnane
(Yale University, USA)
at SBS-EM (ULB)
(More information)
10-12 June 2013 International Conference "3rd European Research Conference on Microfinance" in Agder (NO) (More information)
5 July 2013 DRIVE-IRD-CERMi Workshop "Microfinance and Women's Empowerment: The Road Ahead" at the University of Liverpool (UK) (More information)
March 21, 2013
Our 5th birthday celebration on March 18, 2013, at the Université libre de Bruxelles was a real success!
We held our annual CERMi Research Day from 10.30am to 5.00pm and then welcomed Jonathan Morduch (NYU) and Vijay Mahajan (BASIX, CGAP) for a great evening conference.
Discover two of the presentations from that evening:
February 25, 2013
And one more! We are happy to announce that Marion Allet, one of CERMi's researchers, successfully defended her PhD thesis on "Microfinance and the Environmental Bottom Line" at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) on February 21, 2013.
Congratulations to her!
January 16, 2013
CERMi is proud to announce that Jessica Schicks, one of its researchers, successfully defended her PhD thesis on "The Over-Indebtedness of Microfinance Customers" at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) on January 15, 2013.
Congratulations to her!
December 4, 2012
We are very happy to announce that CERMi PhD Student Marion ALLET won the European Microcredit Research Award 2012 for her brilliant work on the environmental performance of microfinance. She officially received this Award during the 9th EMN Annual Conference in Bucharest (Romania) on 8-9 November 2012.
More information on the EMN website
October 29, 2012
CERMi is pleased to announce the launching of the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Program with an "Opening Research Day" at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (ULB) on November 9th, 2012.
CERMi is part of the Interuniversity Attraction Poles (IAP) research program "If not for Profit, for What? And How? Building interdisciplinary and integrated knowledge on social entrepreneurship and social enterprise", which aims to build interdisciplinary and integrated fundamental knowledge on social enterprises. It involves research teams from ULg, ULB, UCL, and VUB, and also includes international partners in Europe and in the US.
Octrober 18, 2012
Discover our 8th CERMi Newsletter (October 2012)!
What you'll find in this edition :
CERMi (Centre Européen de Recherche en Microfinance / Center 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, which is part of the Académie Wallonie-Bruxelles, was created 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.
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