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| Acknowledgments and Recognitions |
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The Municipality of Guayaquil acknowledges Banco Solidario for its contribution to city projects, especially through the relocation and funding of the Cerro Santa Ana merchants, the restructuring of the community marketplace, and its participation in the extension counters. The Research Department of the IDE Business School in Ecuador, places Banco Solidario’s web page among the five best within a total of 200 web pages, due to its functionality, value to the user, and usability. Solidario is among the Best Medium Enterprises, according to Líderes magazine. The “Successful Innovations in Rural Microfinance” program by Paths to Learning of Africa, Asia and Latin America with the support of Procasur and the Ford Foundation, award Banco Solidario a Diploma for its contribution to the development of innovations within rural microfinance services of the region. More customer service locationsWe opened new offices in Portoviejo, Latacunga, and Guamaní. We have established a cross-transaction system in partnership with Unibanco. This allows customers to use Unibanco’s 52 customer service locations. Therefore, customers now have access to 152 customer service locations nationwide. InnovationWe started working through a Processing Center, also known as our Credit Factory. All our agencies are going through a restructuring and standardization process and will be graded through a ranking tool once every three months. All of the Bank’s files have been centralized. Media and Opinion Leader Training on MicrofinanceWe have started working with the media in providing them training on microfinance within the actual economic context. This training was done by Jacques Trigo, former Bank Superintendent and former Minister of Economics of Bolivia, and by Eduardo Aninat, former Treasurer of Chile. International Press and Internet Publicationswww.globalreporting.orgwww.rutadeaprendizaje.es.tl Accion Internacional Micronews |
Our achievements for 2007 are evidenced by the restructuring of our Institution from the inside out. This has been carried out through an in-depth analysis and process simplification, and additionally, a 25% decrease in expenses along with the support of old and new investors who up to this year have put their trust on Banco Solidario, placing more than 100 million dollars in our hands.
We have focused on the two most important products that our bank offers: Microenterprise and “Olla de Oro”.
The total sum coming from abroad in 2007 was 34 million US Dollars (please refer to the graph). Solidario broke its previous record of 100 million dollars from International investment. Our new investors are: Credit SUISSE through their FUND FOR MICROFINANCE, administered by BlueOrchard Finance S.A through their RESPONSIBILITY fund; and INCOFIN (a company that was funded by Belgian investors with the objective of supporting entrepreneurs in developing countries) through their IMPULSE Microfinance Investment FUND.
A total of USD 335,4 million in credits were distributed in 2007. 174.572 credits of an average amount of USD 1.638 were given to borrowers this year.
Banco Solidario published its third Sustainability Report in partnership with the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative, from the United Nations network for the environment and human rights), in its G3 version. According to GRI’s Executive President, Ernst Ligteringen, we are the first Ecuadorian company to report to GRI.
We have kept an “A” rating with the risk assessment company PCR.
The Bank
