ACCION International

A world pioneer in microfinance, ACCION International issued the first microloan in 1973 in Brazil. In the past 45 years, ACCION has transformed microfinance from a short-term charitable activity to a viable business with both social impact and financial sustainability.

To give people the tools they need to work their way out of poverty. By providing microloans, business training, and other financial services to poor women and men to start their own businesses, ACCION helps them work their way up the economic ladder with dignity.

ACCIONs goal is to have a significant impact on poverty by building self-sustainable microfinance institutions (MFIs) capable of reaching millions of poor microentrepreneurs. We do this by promoting commercial microfinance, providing our network of MFIs with a broad range of technical support. MFIs offer a full range of financial services to the poor: not just business credit, but savings accounts and housing construction and improvement loans, for example.

Our expert staff actively research and develop methodology, policy and technology to enable more effective and efficient financial services for microenterprise.

ACCION Internationals partner microfinance institutions today are providing loans as low as $100 to poor women and men entrepreneurs in 22 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa, and in more than 30 U.S. cities and towns. Together, ACCION affiliated programs have disbursed $9.4 billion in microloans to more than 3.9 million borrowers. Ninety-seven percent of these loans have been repaid.

María Otero first joined ACCION in 1986 as director of its lending program in Honduras, where she lived for three years. She opened ACCION's office in Washington, DC in 1989 and in 2000 was named president & CEO. She is a leading voice on sustainable microfinance, and has published extensively on the subject, including as co-editor of The New World of Microfinance, published by KuMarían Press. She speaks throughout the world on microfinance and the use of market mechanisms to fight poverty.

In addition to her responsibilities as ACCION's CEO, Ms. Otero chairs the board of ACCION Investments in Microfinance, a US$50 million investment company for microfinance. Ms. Otero also serves on several other boards, including that of Banco Sol (Bolivia), the Calvert Foundation and BRAC Holding of Bangladesh, the largest NGO in the world, as well as the United States Institute of Peace. In 2007 she was named to the Advisory Councils of the Inter-American Foundation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In addition, she was a founder of the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds (CMEF), which convenes 23 equity investment funds dedicated to microfinance to discuss their common challenges and interests. In June 2006, Ms. Otero was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as one of 25 members of the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors.

Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, Nigeria, Tanzania, United Republic of, India, Cameroon, China, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Panama, Philippines, United States

56 Roland Street
Suite 300
Boston, MA 02129
Phone: (617) 625-7080
www.accion.org
EIN: 13-2535763