Flipping through the latest data on the bank’s performance, Wan Mohd Fadzmi Wan Othman, President and CEO of Agrobank, found himself recounting the excitement leading up to this moment. Agrobank had just completed its first phase of transformation and is now all geared up in rolling the second phase. Since joining Agrobank in 2011, Wan Mohd Fadzmi has been at the forefront of the bank’s transformation journey, which hasn’t been easy especially when dealing with legacy issues. It is a journey requiring commitment, a mindset shift and significant amount of effort as well as full participation in pursuit of a compelling transformation vision. In fact, the transformation journey was an extension of the strategic direction taken back in 2008 when Agrobank was corporatized and rebranded from Bank Pertanian Malaysia Berhad (BPMB) to its present name. Agrobank’s transformation was not an ordinary one.
Flipping through the latest data on the bank’s performance, Wan Mohd Fadzmi Wan Othman, President and CEO of Agrobank, found himself recounting the excitement leading up to this moment. Agrobank had just completed its first phase of transformation and is now all geared up in rolling the second phase. Since joining Agrobank in 2011, Wan Mohd Fadzmi has been at the forefront of the bank’s transformation journey, which hasn’t been easy especially when dealing with legacy issues. It is a journey requiring commitment, a mindset shift and significant amount of effort as well as full participation in pursuit of a compelling transformation vision. In fact, the transformation journey was an extension of the strategic direction taken back in 2008 when Agrobank was corporatized and rebranded from Bank Pertanian Malaysia Berhad (BPMB) to its present name. Agrobank’s transformation was not an ordinary one.
The re-regulation wave following the global financial crisis is putting pressure on local community and cooperative banks. In this paper, the authors show that cooperative banking can play a pivotal role in reducing income inequalities in local communities. By analyzing Italian local (provincial) credit markets over the 2001-2011 period, the authors find that cooperative banks mitigate income inequality more than their commercial counterparts. This effect remains significant when the authors account for the pervasiveness of relationship lending in the provinces, suggesting that it is the specific nature and orientation of cooperative banks, rather than their lending technologies, that improve income distribution. The impact of cooperative banking on inequality appears to be mainly channeled by reduced migratory flows and lower business turnover.
The purpose of this note is to provide policy recommendations to improve access to credit for rural populations and small agricultural producers under financially sustainable schemes. Improving access to finance for these two groups is essential in reducing poverty and inequality, and in supporting a sustainable Colombian peace process for economic development. The ability of agricultural producers and rural households and firms to make long-term investments, take risks, and create stable income streams is shaped by available financial products and services. When financial services are limited, participants in the rural economy may have to forgo valuable investment and income-generating activities and suffer the consequences of irregular consumption activities.
The purpose of this note is to provide policy recommendations to improve access to credit for rural populations and small agricultural producers under financially sustainable schemes. Improving access to finance for these two groups is essential in reducing poverty and inequality, and in supporting a sustainable Colombian peace process for economic development. The ability of agricultural producers and rural households and firms to make long-term investments, take risks, and create stable income streams is shaped by available financial products and services. When financial services are limited, participants in the rural economy may have to forgo valuable investment and income-generating activities and suffer the consequences of irregular consumption activities.
The report identifies several challenges to increasing access to financial services to the agricultural sector. These relate to the enabling environment (limited availability and quality of publicly available data and fiscal disincentives), and demand (limited financial capability of farmers and producer organizations) and supply (limited operational capacity among financial institutions to serve the agricultural sector and limited availability of medium- to long-term liquidity) of financial services.
The report also identifies four key opportunities to further develop agriculture finance in Rwanda and recommends policy and institutional actions to realize these opportunities effectively. These include opportunities to a) strengthen the enabling environment for agriculture finance, b) facilitate financial inclusion of commercially oriented farmers and agri-SMEs, c) deepen the agricultural credit market, and d) scale up the agricultural insurance market.
The report identifies several challenges to increasing access to financial services to the agricultural sector. These relate to the enabling environment (limited availability and quality of publicly available data and fiscal disincentives), and demand (limited financial capability of farmers and producer organizations) and supply (limited operational capacity among financial institutions to serve the agricultural sector and limited availability of medium- to long-term liquidity) of financial services.
The report also identifies four key opportunities to further develop agriculture finance in Rwanda and recommends policy and institutional actions to realize these opportunities effectively. These include opportunities to a) strengthen the enabling environment for agriculture finance, b) facilitate financial inclusion of commercially oriented farmers and agri-SMEs, c) deepen the agricultural credit market, and d) scale up the agricultural insurance market.
The purpose of this note is to provide policy recommendations to improve access to credit for rural populations and small agricultural producers under financially sustainable schemes. Improving access to finance for these two groups is essential in reducing poverty and inequality, and in supporting a sustainable Colombian peace process for economic development. The ability of agricultural producers and rural households and firms to make long-term investments, take risks, and create
stable income streams is shaped by available financial products and services. When financial services are limited, participants in the rural economy may have to forgo valuable investment and income-generating activities and suffer the consequences of irregular consumption activities.
