Luxembourg Round Table Conference Report 17-19 Oct. 2005

This paper provides details of the Luxembourg Round Table on Microfinance conference, held in October 2005. The conference aimed to:

• Produce concrete proposals to increase the country's involvement in development aid;
• Encourage Luxembourg to become a worldwide microfinance center of excellence;
• Ensure:
  • Greater awareness of microfinance within the Luxembourg financial center;
  • Promotion of European dialogue between microfinance actors working in developing countries;
  • Raising of the profile of rural finance and policy development.

The paper makes the following important points:

• Capital transfers could provide an important source of microfinance funding if they were channeled through the banking sector or regulated microfinance institutions (MFIs);
• There is a need for:
  • More transparency, good governance and professionalism among MFIs;
  • Technical expertise in developing countries in order to draft supervision regulation and create good governance procedures;
  • More linkages throughout the microfinance sector.

The conference stressed the importance of:

• Using guarantees provided by national or international financial organizations as tools to cope with the problems of exchange rate fluctuations;
• Utilizing savings, in tackling poverty;
• Sharing the MFI experience in terms of innovative microfinance services;
• Serving isolated rural communities.

The paper concludes by presenting the following outcomes of the conference:

• The formulation of five proposals to encourage the Luxembourg financial sector to engage more in microfinance;
• The formulation of proposals to overcome the challenges in microfinance for the rural poor.