Accion International

Accion is an international nonprofit.[1] Founded as a community development initiative serving the poor in Venezuela, Accion is known as a pioneer in the fields of microfinance and fintech impact investing.[2]

Accion
TypeNonprofit Organization
Founded1961
HeadquartersCambridge, Massachusetts
Key people
Revenue40,829,047 United States dollar (2016) 
Number of employees
150-200 (November 2017)
Websitehttp://www.accion.org/

According to the World Bank's 2017 Global Findex, close to two billion people are unbanked and millions more are underserved by the world's formal financial system.[3] In order to meet the needs of those who are left out of – or poorly served by – the global financial sector, Accion leverages the power of the capital markets to help financial institutions reach scale and sustainability.[4] Its three-pronged approach involves investing in financial service providers to maximize social impact and financial returns, supporting partners with advisory and governance services, and influencing the industry to focus on the obstacles and solutions on the path to financial inclusion.[5]

Along with Grameen Bank and FINCA International, Accion is considered to be one of the most influential financial inclusion organizations in the world.[6]

To-date, it has more than 110 partners in 50 countries.

Accion is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and also has offices in Washington, D.C.; Bogota, Colombia; Mumbai, India; and Beijing, China. Accion works across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In the U.S., Accion operates as the largest nationwide nonprofit lending network in the United States.[7]

Accion's strategy

Accion's 2016 strategy update identified three primary areas of focus for the organization:[8]

1. Accion finds and grows seed-stage startups that meet the needs of the underserved:

  • Accion's seed-stage impact investment initiative, Accion Venture Lab, provides capital and support to startups that harness innovation to drive financial inclusion.[9]
  • Accion Venture Lab focuses on disruptive early companies.[10]
  • Its more than 30 portfolio companies use alternative data, business model innovation, blockchain, digital identification, social media, machine learning, and other emerging technologies to provide people and businesses with financial services.[11]

2. Accion helps innovative yet established financial service providers maximize their impact:

  • Through Accion Global Investments, and Accion Frontier Investments – managed by Quona Capital, Accion works to catalyze innovations and leverage technology to support financially underserved microentrepreneurs, families, and individuals in emerging markets.[12]
  • Accion Global Advisory Solutions, the organization's advisory team, provides experienced operational and management support to strengthen and maximize financial services providers’ impact on financial inclusion.

3. Accion protects and empowers clients as well as challenges and engages the financial inclusion industry:

  • The Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) at Accion uses advocacy, research, and insights to push industry stakeholders to overcome obstacles to financial inclusion.[13]
  • CFI examines key financial inclusion questions, including financial health, the efficacy of government-to-person transfers, and the technologies enabling digital financial services.[14]
  • The Smart Campaign, the world's first global financial consumer protection standard, was one of CFI's signature initiatives and helped protect tens of millions of microfinance clients through its certification program for microfinance institutions and its Client Protection Principles.[15]In 2020, CFI retired the Smart Campaign brand and the implementation and technical assistance work was transferred to industry partners CERISE and SPTF so that CFI could focus on consumer protection research.[16]

Leadership
Accion Leadership
Name Roles
Diana Taylor Chair, Board of Directors
Michael Schlein President and CEO of Accion
Abhishek Agrawal Chief Regional Officer, India
Esteban A. Altschul Chief Operating Officer
Brian Clancy Chief Planning & Development Officer
Lynne Curran Senior Vice President, Human Resources
Tahira Dosani Managing Director, Accion Venture Lab
Mayada El-Zoghbi Managing Director, Center for Financial Inclusion
John Fischer Chief Investment Officer
Diego Guzman Chief Regional Officer, Latin America
Brian A. Kuwik Chief Regional Officer, Africa
Livingston Parsons Chief Financial Officer
Vikas Raj Managing Director, Accion Venture Lab
Jim Rosenberg Chief Communications Officer
Kevin Saunders General Counsel
Victoria White Managing Director, Global Advisory Solutions

Background and history

2010–present

In 2009 and 2010, Accion helped to start microfinance institutions in underserved areas of Inner Mongolia, Cameroon, and Brazil.

In December 2009, Accion inaugurated Accion Microfinance China (AMC) in Chifeng Prefecture, Inner Mongolia; this microfinance institution represented the first wholly owned foreign microcredit company (MCC), and only the second wholly foreign-owned MCC in the country. Since then, Accion transitioned ownership of AMC to Grassland Finance Ltd., a Hong Kong holding company incorporated in 2011 with a focus on founding or investing in financial services institutions in China that provide loans and other financial services to China's vast number of medium, small, and micro enterprises (MSMEs). Today, Grassland has grown to more than 15 branches across six provinces.[17]

In April 2012, Accion launched its seed-stage investment initiative, Accion Venture Lab. Venture Lab invests capital in, and provides support to, innovative fintech start-ups that increase access to, improve the quality of, or reduce the cost of financial services for the underserved at scale. Since launching, Accion Venture Lab has deployed over $12 million across more than 30 start-ups that work in over 20 countries worldwide.[18][19]

Accion expanded its work to yet another country in April 2015 when it partnered with Myanmar's DAWN, a microfinance institution originally launched in 2002 as a program of Save the Children. After decades of isolation beginning in the 1960s, Myanmar rejoined the world economy with a need for affordable services. Accion has helped DAWN integrate new technologies, triple its loan portfolio, and expand to more branches.[20]

In November 2016, Accion announced an updated organizational strategy reflecting Accion's increasing focus on the potential for financial technology, or "fintech," to reach the world's three billion financially underserved people. See details on Accion's strategy below.[21]

In March 2017, Accion announced the launch of the first global fintech fund for the underserved: the Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, managed by Quona Capital.[22] The fund aims to help the world's three billion financially underserved people by catalyzing fintech innovations that can radically improve the quality and availability of financial services for the underserved. At its launch, the fund represented over $141 million in commitments from an array of institutional investors. Accion is the fund's sponsor and anchor investor; the fund's manager, Quona Capital, is an early growth-stage venture firm focused on financial technology for underserved consumers and businesses in emerging markets.[23] Investments include NeoGrowth,[24] Yoco, [25] and Konfio.[26]

2000s

In October 2000, Accion began working in partnership with microlending organizations in sub-Saharan Africa, marking its first initiative outside the Americas. Recognizing the need for microcredit throughout Africa, Accion worked to increase financial inclusion for poor, self-employed Africans throughout the continent. In 2006, Accion launched a partnership with Ecobank, the leading regional bank in West Africa. Pan-African Savings and Loans (then called EB-Accion Savings and Loans) launched operations in Ghana in 2007 and is expanding to neighboring countries.[27]

In 2005, Accion started on a new venture to reach another underserved group: urban small business owners in India. Since establishing an office in the country, Accion has partnered with local financial institutions in Patna and Mumbai, assisting them in applying individual and group lending and tailored credit scoring, among other microfinance methodologies.

In 2007, Compartamos Banco, a Mexican microfinance institution and Accion investee, became the first Latin American MFI to offer equity through an initial public offering (IPO). The IPO sparked an industry-wide debate, with some "questioning the ethics of profit[ing] from the poor," and others arguing that "the profit motive can help lift many more people out of poverty than charity alone could ever do."[28] Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, chairman of Accion at the time, was among the latter, and argued that the IPO was needed to attract much more capital to the microfinance industry, and Accion used the funds to advance its mission. Today, Compartamos stands out as one of the largest MFIs, in terms of number of clients, in Latin America.[29]

The proceeds from the IPO allowed Accion to create new MFIs in Brazil, Cameroon, China, Ghana and India, and strengthen, through investment or reinvestment, other partners in India, Africa, and Latin America. Accion also used the proceeds to establish and fund its Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) at Accion.

Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion

CFI's work is grouped into three broad categories:

Client Advocacy

Examples of CFI's industry-wide initiatives include, the Smart Campaign – the world's first global consumer protection campaign, – and Financial Inclusion 2020 – a movement that mobilized stakeholders around the globe to achieve full financial inclusion, using the year 2020 as a focal point for action.[30]

1990s

In 1991 Accion brought its microlending model to the United States by piloting a program in Brooklyn, New York. Accion aimed to help those who didn't meet requirements for traditional financing (such as bank loans) because their requested amount was too small or because they had limited or damaged credit.

Accion has since worked to further adapt its lending model to the social and economic needs of communities across the United States. Accion now serves small businesses nationwide through four independent community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and a national office that invests in shared knowledge, innovation, and impact to benefit the entire network.[31]

Since 1991, the members of Accion in the U.S. have provided more than 60,000 loans to small business owners and disbursed more than $500 million in capital. Additionally, Accion provides business advising and training services – both in person and through online educational resources – to tens of thousands of entrepreneurs each year.[32][33]

In 1995, Accion created an equity investment vehicle for microfinance, the Accion Gateway Fund to provide new microfinance institutions with the resources they needed to expand.[34][35]

1980s

Over the next decade, Accion helped start microfinance programs in 14 countries in Latin America. Accion and its partners developed a lending method that met the needs of microenterprises.

The ability to cover costs, augmented by Accion's new loan guarantee fund, the Bridge Fund, enabled Accion's partners to connect with the local banking sector and dramatically increase the number of microentrepreneurs they reached.[36] Between 1989 and 1995, Accion's Latin American Networked loan disbursements multiplied more than 20 times.

Convinced that microfinance had the potential to transform the economic landscape of Latin America, Accion recognized that microfinance institutions (MFIs) would need access to a much larger pool of capital.

To help them achieve this, Accion helped create BancoSol, the first commercial bank in the world dedicated solely to microenterprise. Founded in Bolivia in 1992, its clients are typically market vendors, sandal makers, and seamstresses.

In 1994, Accion helped BancoSol sell certificates of deposit in the U.S. financial market.

1970s

By the early 1970s, Accion began to focus on addressing a major cause of poverty in Latin American cities: lack of economic opportunity.

In 1973, Accion staff in Recife, Brazil, began to focus their efforts on helping informal businesses. An Accion organization in Recife called UNO coined the term "microenterprise" and began issuing small loans, pioneering the field of microcredit.

Within four years, UNO provided 885 loans, helping to create or stabilize 1,386 jobs.

1960s
Accion featured in The New York Times – Jan. 1966

Accion was founded in 1961 by a UC Berkeley law student named Joseph Blatchford.

Blatchford's founding of Accion was heavily influenced by the philosophical works of Alexis de Tocqueville, Aldous Huxley and Mohandas Gandhi as well as The Ugly American by UC Berkeley professor Eugene Burdick and the classic essay “The Moral Equivalent of War” by William James. Working from James’ main thesis, Blatchford believed that Americans needed to find new, non-militaristic ways to focus their involvement abroad while promoting self-determination and democracy. A volunteer corps dedicated to international cooperation and grassroots development was one such path.

Blatchford recruited two other standout UC Berkeley law students, Jerry Brady and Gary Glenn, to manage volunteer recruitment, publicity and stateside orientation of volunteers while he continued to cultivate contacts in Latin America.

In the summer of 1961, the first group of 30 Americans was ready to deploy to poor barrios in urban centers around Venezuela.

The nature of Accion's first projects reflected needs that the communities themselves identified as priorities. The Accion workers did everything from digging ditches to building schools to fundraising to managing sensitive negotiations between opposing community leaders. About the range of these early projects, Blatchford reflected, “The project depended on what the community was concerned about. Then the community did it, they created committees and were in charge of the project. They realized they could do it and it changed their lives.”[37]

By the mid-1960s, Accion was engaging fewer and fewer North Americans and Europeans and instead was hiring college-educated Venezuelans as organizers – a group called “Community Action Organizers.”

Throughout the 1960s, Blatchford and other Accionistas worked with local business leaders in Argentina, Brazil (Rio, São Paulo, and Recife) and Peru to set up community development organizations that followed the same philosophy as the original Accion in Venezuela – “not to give people alms but to give them confidence in their own ability.” Many of these organizations – including Ação Comunitária do Brasil Rio de Janeiro, Ação Comunitária do Brasil São Paulo and Accion Comunitaria de Peru – which today is Mibanco – are still in existence today.[38]

A few years after launching in Venezuela, Accion established itself in New York to provide technical support to funders and business leaders in Latin American countries who wanted to start community action programs like Accion did in Venezuela.[39]

Accion's awards and recognitions
Award/recognition Description
Institutional Investor's "Fintech Finance 40"[40][41] Accion's work has been included in this list every year since 2014. The listing ranks financiers leading the fintech revolution.
ImpactAssets 50 Accion has been included ImpactAssets 50 (IA 50) for six consecutive years. IA 50 is the only free, public, searchable database of outstanding impact investing fund managers.

See also

References
  1. "About". Accion. 2014-06-19. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  2. "What is Accion?". Accion. 2014-06-19. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  3. "Global Findex". World Bank. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  4. "A Conversation on Accion's Model". Center for Financial Inclusion Blog. 2015-05-06. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  5. "What's Next for Accion". 2016-11-17. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  6. "About". Accion. 2014-07-01. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  7. "About Us | Accion". Accion. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  8. "Vision and Strategy". Accion. 2014-06-19. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  9. "Meet the Investor: Amee Parbhoo, Accion Venture Lab". Disrupt Africa. 2018-07-10. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  10. Breloff, Paul (January 2015). "Accion Venture Lab (Case Narrative)". Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization. 10 (1–2): 75–93. doi:10.1162/inov_a_00231. ISSN 1558-2477.
  11. "How to Help a Social Startup Thrive (SSIR)". Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  12. "Investors are backing fintech ventures to crack a huge market: the global poor – ImpactAlpha". impactalpha.com. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  13. Chu, Michael Schlein and Michael. "Microfinance Goes Public". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  14. "The Center for Financial Inclusion Digs Into the Global Findex 2017 Numbers – Lend Academy". Lend Academy. 2018-06-07. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  15. Center for Financial Inclusion. Smart Campaign Project Page. https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/about/what-we-do/the-smart-campaign. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. "CFI Celebrates Smart Campaign's Advancement of Consumer Protection, Announces Plans to Transition Resources to Industry Partners". Center for Financial Inclusion.
  17. "China Association of Microfinance – News – World News, IFC to buy 18.9% stake in ACCION Microfinance China". 2014-08-12. Archived from the original on 2014-08-12. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  18. Nsehe, Mfonobong. "Microfinance Giant Launches Venture Capital Fund For East Africa". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  19. "Venture Lab".
  20. Hynes, Casey. "New Partnership Aims To Lift Women Microentrepreneurs In Myanmar Out Of Poverty". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  21. "What's Next for Accion". 2016-11-17. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  22. Surane, Jennifer (March 5, 2017). "Quona Capital Raises $141 Million for Financial Inclusion Fund". Bloomberg. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  23. Irrera, Anna. "Accion and Quona Capital raise $141 million for new fintech fund". U.S. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  24. Shweta, Sharma. "Digital lending platform NeoGrowth raises $47 mn in equity funding". VC Circle.
  25. "South African tech group Yoco raises $16 million in funding". Business Tech.
  26. "Mexican fintech start-up Konfio receives $8 million investment". CISION.
  27. "Blackbaud NetCommunity". archive.is. 2014-08-12. Archived from the original on 2014-08-12. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  28. "Poor people, rich returns". The Economist. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  29. "Poor people, rich returns". The Economist. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  30. "Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion Board Development Program". www.mastercardfdn.org. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  31. Fracassi, Cesare; Garmaise, Mark J.; Kogan, Shimon; Natividad, Gabriel (February 2016). "Business Microloans for U.S. Subprime Borrowers". Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. 51 (1): 55–83. doi:10.1017/S0022109016000144. ISSN 0022-1090.
  32. "Our Approach | Accion". Accion. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  33. "Accion U.S. Network | Accion". Accion. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  34. "Subscribe to read". Financial Times. Retrieved 2017-11-30. Cite uses generic title (help)
  35. "ACCION, the World's Most Effective Non-Profit Microfinance, Thrives on Constant Innovation". Fast Company. 2010-09-30. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  36. "ACCION Global Bridge Fund | MIX". www.themix.org. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  37. "1960s: Accion's Early Days". Accion. 2014-06-26. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  38. Accion (2015-03-26). "The Father of Microfinance". Accion. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  39. "Private Peace Corps, Proving Self-Help In Venezuela Leads to Self-Reliance, Moves Toward a World Operation". Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  40. "The Fintech Finance 40: Michael Schlein". Institutional Investor. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  41. Burn, M. Roy (November 13, 2018). "Fintech Finance 40". Institutional Investor. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
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