Microfinance Seen Expanding

Microfinance sector continues to grow in LatAm, according to Fernando Lucano, fund manager at Peru’s Cyrano Management, manager of the $265m Global Microfinance Facility fund. “In Peru there is more or less $2.5bn of financial market assets invested in microfinance,” says Lucano. “The size of the Peruvian financial system is between $18bn and $25bn, so there is 10% of assets in microfinance, and that will continue to grow,” he adds. The microfinance sector is growing by 30%-40% a year in Peru, Lucano states. “There is business for everybody: Investment banking, rating agencies, sophisticated investors,” he adds. But the growth and increasing of microfinance calls for a more sophisticated look at the sector, says Lucano, a panelist at a microfinance forum organized by Credit Suisse in New York.