Housing Finance Moving Forward: How to Reach Scale?

Housing Finance – Moving Forward: How to Reach Scale? Agenda for Knowledge Exchange Tuesday, March 13, 2007 Facilitator: Margie Brand The QED Group 1:00 – 4:00 pm

The growing momentum to find solutions to asset accumulation for the poor led USAID to convene 22 experts to discuss key issues in scaling up housing finance for the poor. Participants brought together expertise in housing with those of microfinance to consider the question of scale in shelter finance. Primarily designed as a brainstorming of experts, potential areas for further collaboration and exploration were identified for donors and practitioners.

Below is a synopsis of the workshop followed by detailed minutes and a contact list. More information can be found at http://www.microlinks.org/ev_en.php?ID=16441_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC

What did we learn from our discussions? 1. There is a growing interest in housing finance from various sectors including MFIs, donors, and social investors. 2. There are lessons from past programs, such as USAID’s Housing Guaranty Program, that are relevant for renewed interest and investments in this field. But today's discussions are more focused on making housing finance available for poor and even very poor households. 3. There are many diverse perspectives on how to move forward with housing finance in part based on the differing orientations of the organizations involved. Housing NGOs, for instance, have a very different perspective than MFIs. 4. Some points of commonality among the participants included:  Emphasis on the importance of a demand perspective in the programs and where possible a reliance on market mechanisms.  The need to address the challenges of scaling up and mainstreaming successful efforts.  Capacity, both of the lending institutions and of the borrowers, needs careful examination.

Based on these initial discussions it became clear that: 1. More discussions between practitioners, donors, and investors are necessary. These discussions should be expanded to include representatives of other segments of the housing finance/construction market, e.g., suppliers of building materials. 2. No ‘one-size-fits all’ program will emerge from further discussions. But it is important for all actors in the field to develop a clear understanding of the aims and methods of other actors. Through such collaboration, systemic change will be feasible, rather than one-off approaches. 3. There is a need to experiment with new shelter financial products that takes into account the fact that the majority of poor households build their own homes in the developing world. 4. A similar need exists with regard to the development of financial products that respond to community infrastructure (water and sanitation) needs that complement housing activities.

SESSION 1: CURRENT WORK IN HOUSING FINANCE Participants shared with the group past, present, and future activities in housing finance, including:

 Global initiatives in research and pilot projects  Creating appropriate products for clients based on demand  Leveraging private sector financing through credit guarantees  Experimenting with mortgage financing for the poor  Second-tier housing finance facilities

Areas for growth:  Systemic approach – connecting housing with broader slum-upgrading programs  Achieving scale – few housing finance programs have achieved scale in terms of numbers of clients or geographic outreach  More partnerships between housing experts and finance institutions  Designing affordable mortgage finance for the poor  Building sophisticated models of financing that leverage commercial capital

SESSION 2: KEY CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS WITH THE INDUSTRY Participants divided into 2 groups to determine the key obstacles in the industry. Commonalities identified in both groups included:

 Product Design – need more appropriate products to meet client demand within MFIs  Research and Development – lack of market research and understanding of client demand; also a result of lack of funding for thorough market analysis  Capacity – lack of institutional capacity to develop sophisticated products and introduce new products; also a lack of borrower repayment capacity for longer-term loans  Legal Regulations – lack of enabling environment for land tenure, basic infrastructure (water and san.), credit history of clients, enforceability of contracts, interest rate caps,  Subsidies – when can they promote affordable financing for homes for the poor? When can they deter repayment? How to connect with strong financial institutions?  Funding – lack of access to medium-term funds; limited seed funding for pilot programs to innovate; limited funding for second-tier institutions to diversify

SESSION 3: KEY OPPORTUNITIES TO MOVE FORWARD Participants broke out into three groups, divided by institutional focus (donors, MFIs, housing) and identified potential strategies and activities for collaboration and exploration, including, but not limited to:  Demand-led not supply driven approaches : analysis of client demand in order to design more appropriate products  Funding and technical assistance for capacity building: training, management, product diversification, market research  Create special purpose vehicles (housing, water and sanitation)  Provide non-financial services: support titling programs, legal support, construction design  Facilitate alliances between different partners – commercial banks, gov’ts, CBOs, construction firms  MFI as distribution arm  Provide “smart” subsidies where appropriate  Build the legal and regulatory environment  Lower risk for private sector financing: ex: credit enhancement  Document and disseminate best practices – including community based solutions and non-bank cases such as CEMEX and Home Depot  Identify and seek enlightened leaders among gov, financial institutions, CBOs  Fund innovative pilot projects  demonstration effects Detailed Meeting Minutes

OPENING – Ron Carlson (USAID Housing and Urban Development) Ron opened the workshop and introduced himself and office as being a host of the workshop. This workshop is a precursor to the CGAP meeting taking place on March 14. Ron’s main points were:  The donors want to hear from the practitioners in the room. He wants to learn how we can work together as an industry to make housing work for the poor.  USAID has a long history in housing. There have been 300 programs in 40 years with 3.3 billion portfolio. Housing began to fall off the radar screen in the 1990s. When this happened with USAID, some other donors started showing the same trend.  We are beginning to see some indications that housing is back on the radar screen.  Housing is critical to EG; it is asset building vehicle for the poor; instrument of political and economic development.  We need to find a way to mainstream housing MF. Ways to institutionalize certain mechanisms. Take message from today back to housing finance working group.

1. ‘WHAT IS YOUR ORGANIZATION DOING IN THE FIELD OF HOUSING MF?’ [Answers were placed into categories on flip-chart paper. Below are further details that were shared by participants and then the text from the flip-chart]

ACCION International Themes: Market Research; Remittances; Commercialization; Information Dissemination (publications/conferences); Systemic Approaches; Private Sector Involvement (partnerships w/ CEMEX) Acumen Fund Themes: Home Improvement Loans; Sustainable Models; Construction Finance; Commercialization; Systemic Approaches; New/Appropriate Products  Acumen is a social venture fund. They use a market based approach to invest. Do this by sectors, housing is one.  Only focus on India, Pakistan and Kenya. Approach to housing is holistic. 3 pillars – bricks and mortars, finance and systems.  Main challenges they face are building sophistication (financial, operational and managerial); tailor and design financial products that are directional with mindset of capital markets. CHF International Themes: Community Development; Pilot Projects; HMF Commercial Bank Linkages; Slum Upgrading; MFIs and Local Government  2006 in Ghana worked with commercial bank. Invested in slum upgrading projects in India as providing TA - NURM.  Community dev, improved habitat, provide financial services.  MF is small part of what CHF does. 30% of loans are for housing  Two challenges: need to become more demand driven, need for commercialization. Cities Alliance Themes: City development strategies; Municipal finance; Slum upgrading  Housed in World Band and consists of 21 different partners. It was created in response to slum formations and the focus is on city development. Finance agenda within alliance has been focused in improving municipal finance rather than housing finance.  Series of briefing notes on Housing MF 2000's (see Shelter finance on our homepage http://www.citiesalliance.org/activities-output/topics/finance/shelter-finance.html).  They have a lot of material on housing policies and approaches in ongoing CDS and SU programs, but have not systematically put them together. E.g. presentation from CDS in Yemen, where housing finance is one part of the agenda.  Cities Alliance arranging Brown Bag Lunch June 15th on report on analysis of South Africa's Housing Sector Performance.  Overview of housing finance situation in Guatemala - produced within Cities Alliance preparatory grant for guarantee facility that World Bank is considering financing. The book "La Exclusion Financiera y El Desarrollo Comunitario", is a joint publication of the World Bank, the Cities Alliance, the Guatemalan Ministry of Infrastructure, Construction and Housing, DIFD and the World Bank Institute - based on research carried out in the course of project preparation which points the way to private sector financing of informal housing improvements and basic services. Development Alternatives Inc.  AMAP research being conducted with USAID. Connection b/t housing and remittances. Development Innovations Group Themes: Housing Policy; Subsidies for Housing Finance; Post-Emergency Scenario; Scale/Mainstreaming; New/Appropriate Products; Global Initiatives; Slum Upgrading  Recently begun multi year, multi nation project testing. Important to look at appropriate products and contexts. What kinds of scenarios do different financial products work best? Different policy and regulatory scenarios. What kind of housing are we building not only what financial services are we offering. Habitat for Humanity Themes: Sustainable Models: Research/Advocacy; New Appropriate Products; Housing (broadly); Complex Urban Environment  Habitat works in almost 100 countries. Focus on housing solutions as a broader umbrella. Housing finance and MF are an important piece.  A key question is how to create demand driven projects. For a long time, haven’t been sustainable but are moving towards that.  Advocacy - due to DC location, they have the opportunity to be more involved in advocacy for issues of housing. OPIC  In the past 3-4 years, OPIC has focused on more MF. As OPIC is a small organization, the biggest thing is to get most leverage out of money and time for transactions. Have broadened to include NGOs, foundations. Opportunity International Themes: Home Improvement loans; Commercialization; New/Appropriate Products;  OI has 45 MFIs in 29 countries, 17 are commercial. In 2006, 200,00 loans out of 1.4 million were made in housing sector.  Current project in Montenegro, with traditional mortgage project. Home improvement line of credit project in Nicaragua.  Robin is in charge of strategic planning and looks at developing products in this regard. ShoreBank International Themes: Systemic Approaches; Pilot Projects; HMF Commercial Bank Linkages; Slum Upgrading  ShoreBank International’s parent company ShoreBank Corporation is a fully regulated U.S. commercial bank with substantial expertise in financing of real estate in difficult economic environments. ShoreBank’s commercial banks specialize in lending to traditionally underserved communities in Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit. Real estate loans (including multi-family, residential, commercial and church loans) accounted for 48.7% of the Bank’s total assets of $1,676,130,016 as of 12/31/05. Since 1973, ShoreBank has financed the purchase and rehabilitation of nearly 46,000 housing units.  Currently, SBI is involved in four housing finance projects in Mexico and the MENA region  Historically, have implemented over ten housing finance projects, including establishment of two special purpose housing finance companies – SOA Kredit in Azerbaijan and Domenia Credit in Romania, and launch of housing lending units in financial institutions in Georgia and Cambodia.  Developed “Mortgage Toolkit for Africa” on behalf of the IFC to assist in standardization of mortgage lending in emerging markets. SIDA Themes : Regulatory Framework/Housing Policy; Research/Advocacy; Formal Mortgage Finance; Pilot Projects; Global Initiatives  Working with 5 institutions in Central America which involves a mixture of second tier and first tier, housing MF.  Irene works in Nicaragua and for last 10 years worked with 5 SIDA projects. Introduce housing MF within existing MFIs. If you compare housing MF %, it remains low. Given demand, why is this number so low?  Issues to look at for future – how to can housing finance be mainstreamed and adopted at housing policy level? Address the gap between what we are doing in housing MF and housing policy. Urban Institute Themes: Formal Mortgage Finance; Credit Enhancements/Guarantees; Pilot Projects; Slum Upgrading; Information Dissemination  UI is a research and think tank. Sally’s experience is with housing policy. Formal mortgage market must be strong to produce links that we want to see. Four areas: info dissemination, programs in India, Egypt and Tanzania (slum upgrading, guarantee facilitates, introduce more broadly low-income lending in Egypt) USAID Themes: Financial Institutions/Capital Markets; City Development Strategies; Scale/Mainstreaming; Formal Mortgage Finance; Systemic Approaches; Slum Upgrading; Research/Advocacy Urban Programs office:  Committed funding to Housing MF activity in Ghana - partnership with CHF and local bank – development of housing specific products Microenterprise Development office  AMAP research: best practices of Housing MF (4 case studies)  USAID Zambia signed historic MOU with Zambian Ministry of Lands - $80 million of new housing construction, 5,000 new homes, model for future housing projects in sub-Saharan Africa, private investors with donors including USAID, UNDP, OPIC and the Government of Zambia to provide titles and mortgage loans to middle-income families.  Ron discussed the issue of scale and ‘patches of green’ which he described as pilot projects which although good are not connected to each other. Urged others to look outside the box, look at new nontraditional partners, financial institutions. How do you make that link? That needs to be done more and more systemically. SCALE, MAINSTREAMING WOCCU Themes: Home Improvement Loans; Market Research; Formal Mortgage Finance  In the process of doing quick-and-dirty demand research for housing finance in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Rwanda and Kenya - to enable WOCCU to respond to financial organizations who are seeking to place long term capital for housing via credit unions and credit union associations. Attempting to assess local member demand for housing loans for home construction or purchase, potential terms (rates and time) that would be marketable, and financial management capacity and experience of the local institutions in making and managing longer term lending. World Bank Themes: Scale/Mainstreaming; Credit Enhancement/Guarantees;  He talked about the need to broaden distribution channels within MFIs and beyond MFIs. In WB Projects, there is a focuses on liquidity and credit enhancement. WB is looking at how to broaden mainstream housing MF. Discussed fact that housing MF is secondary within MFIs. If this continues, we will not go to scale.  Supports housing finance in a number of ways including: -Projects with second-tier housing finance facilities -Housing sector reform projects that strengthen the institutional and legal basis for home lending -The channeling of grant funding for research and reform related to housing finance.

ANSWERS DIVIDED INTO CATEGORIES (LIST FROM FLIP CHART) City Development Strategies C.A., USAID Commercialization CHF, Acumen Fund, Opportunity, ACCION Community Development CHF Complex Urban Environment Habitat Construction Finance Acumen Fund Credit Enhancement/Guarantees UI, WB Distribution Channels Bruce Ferguson Financial Institutions/Capital Markets USAID, SIDA Formal Mortgage Finance USAID, SIDA, WOCCU, UI Global Initiatives SIDA, DIG HMF Commercial Bank Linkages ShoreBank, CHF Home Improvement Loans WOCCU, OI, Acumen Fund Housing (broadly) Habitat Information Dissemination UI, ACCION Market Research WOCCU, ACCION MFIs and Local Governments CHF Municipal finance C.A New /Appropriate Products/Demand Sensitive Acumen Fund, Habitat, DIG, OI Pilot Projects (2nd and 1st tier institutions) SIDA, CHF, Urban, ShoreBank Post-Emergency Scenario DIG Private Sector Involvement ACCION (partnerships w/ Cene) Regulatory Framework/Housing Policy SIDA, DIG Remittances ACCION Research/Advocacy Habitat, SIDA, USAID Scale/mainstreaming USAID, DIG, WB Slum Upgrading UI, CHF, C.A., USAID, DIG, Shorebank Subsidies for Housing Finance DIG Sustainable Models Habitat, Acumen Fund Systemic Approaches/Connecting Partners USAID, ShoreBank, Acumen Fund, ACCION

2. KEY CHALLENGES, CONSTRAINTS WITHIN INDUSTRY [Group was divided into two and wrote challenges on sticky notes]

Group 1 SCALE & REPLICABILITY were on the outside COORDINATION – harmonization of efforts, and how to make use of all the experience were also overlying challenges

Product Design ↔ R&D - coming up with housing mf products. Why there aren’t more products within MFIs? . Housing needs holistic approach . Microfinance has limits . How to support MFIs to work with housing . Cannibalization of ME loans . Lack of tailored products . HMF as core, not boutique product . Building on savings . Saving & Lending in MFIs . If 80% of housing is produced by people themselves, products need to take that as a starting point R&D ↔ Product Design . Funding for market studies . Need impact studies . The question of the appropriate/demand for const. technical assistance Distribution Channels - There are many channels that are known, but there may be some we don’t know about. . Supplier credit . Role of Building Industry in Lending . Is there more HMF than we think? . Consumer loans used for housing Market Driven This satisfies need of client and needs of MFIs. . Mixed use of mixed income housing . Financial Reporting . Market approach . Collateral . How to satisfy clients & investors? . Ratings . Foreclosure . Scale in tough markets . Metrics Subsidies . How to match HMF . Links with Subsidies . “Bad” subsidies—kills markets Policy Framework . Land Security or Tenure . Urban Land . Access to Land . Housing is more than access to finance . Policies on progressive building . Increase visibility of housing . Shelter is really not on the agenda Policy Implementation: . Links with Local Governments (slums, utilities) . Slums-Lack of Coordination between CDS & Finance . Participation & Housing MF . HMF & Integrating Approach to SU . LED & Slum Upgrading . Public-private partnerships . How to get formal banks to go down market . Comprehensive strategies . Strengthen progressive housing supply chain . Comprehensive Strategies . Land costs . Strengthen progressive housing supply chain . Materials Cost . Materials Distribution

Group 2 Capacity Skills - The discussion highlighted borrower repayment capacity and capacity and skills within financial institutions. Mentioned management limitations, governance. Management capability and capacity . Mgmt capability to achieve scale Borrower Repayment Capacity . Options for extreme poor (down market) . Repayment capacity . Creative (how to ) customer profile when factoring informal income services Products – Discussed that the ‘products’ listings can be seen as a subsector of capacity/skills . Make non-collateralized loans without group guarantees . Structuring housing loan product into traditional MFIs . Products & Product design . De-linking housing loans from micro-enterprise loans . MFIs & product diversification . Appropriate products (demand driven) . Meeting Demand (appropriate supply) . Multi-family construction funding in slum upgrading Legal Regulations . Housing/land markets . Lack of basic infrastructure (water & sanitation) . Population growth/urbanization . Holistic approach. Slum upgrading . Credit Scoring Systems . Gov’t regulations . Property rights . Bank/MFI/HFI links . Political regulators/environment . Fast/effective title process . Land tenure title . Collateral . Planning of tenure, infrastructure in slum, upgradinig will help increase demand for housing microfinance . Creative ways to induce payment aside from formal collateral . Housing policy/land titling . Enforceability of loan contracts Funding . Funds . Credit enhancement: guarantees to kick start market . Liquidity; access to medium term funds . Liquidity, facilities focused on HMF . Leverage remittances . Asset liability mgmt. (term structure of finance) . Long term money . Exchange risk . Access to credit . Limited seed funding for pilots to innovate . Long term access to capital . Financial markets (securitization) . Initiate dialogue w/ international and domestic financial markets to identify gaps in fostering a linkage between demand side and supply side of the equation Private sector links. Not just funding. Building more interest.(Irene )Other cross-cutting issues prevent people from being involved in housing. Whole level of different skills and sophistication. People still have small incomes, they will always be looking for productive lending. Why go into housing then which is more sophisticated? . Engaging Private Sector: Defining profit / return metrics . Political will . Commercial Banks . What is acceptable scale for donors/private sector . Banks/MFI/HFI Links . Donor coordination with practitioners to work together to come up with a systemic strategy to go to scale

3. WHAT ARE KEY OPPORTUNITIES/STRATEGIES/WAYS TO MOVE FORWARD? [Participants were divided into three groups: MF focused orgs; housing focused orgs; donors and asked to discuss key these points while keeping in mind the challenges that were discussed earlier. The participants then moved around to the other tables, while one representative stayed, to discuss the groups’ findings with people from organizations with different perspectives.]

MF FOCUSED ORGANIZATIONS  Client demand  complement client “savings” (sweat equity, savings, investment, etc.) Opportunity: expand target market to low income hh, eg: self-employed poor (not just microenterprise)  Motivation: Affordable access to decent finance Good business sense: diversification, portfolio quality  Def’n: non-mortgage financing and housing (versus housing undertaken by MFIs)  Non-financial services: permission to build titling/legal support, technical assistance design, insurance Opportunity: alliances – banks, CEMEX/Home Depot  Product bundles: insurance, aggregately housing MF portfolios  Special purpose vehicles: eg specialized housing  Capacity building of existing MFIs  Other players: -Motivation? (social, market development) -Aligning incentives -What is an acceptable return-risk profile  Value chain: looks at “micro-construction” as potential target  Slum upgrading: -Focus is different -Requires more “holistic” approach (infrastructure, financing, etc.)  Solutions need to be contextualized and phased 1) “low hanging fruit”: basic home improvement BUT assumes it is a priority for MF industry? - requires “value chain approach” 2) Should MF play a niche role focus on financing? Counter examples in other regions (eg: BRI) Need to segment MF industry between commercial MFIS (which include bank players) and majority of MFIs (which are NGOs/donor dependent) 3) Role of donors/policy makers/THOUGHT LEADERS -Influence practices (eg: private sector partnerships) -Need to be educated on opportunity -Interventions via private sector (eg: SHF – public development bank)

HOUSING FOCUSED ORGANIZATIONS  “Smart” subsidies  Collaboration (slums, NGOS, gov’t, etc) **  Increase land security  Smart policy (zoning, urban planning, infrastructure, foreclosure)  Linkages (ex: bank  MFI as distribution arm) **  Systems (technology, ID…)  Increase economic incentives for MFIs to do housing  Strengthen credit worthiness of institution  Commercial investors: acculturate to base of pyramid)  Best practices in: borrower screening and underwriting  Diversify organizations (broaden the table, not just MFIs and commercial lenders) **  Increase choice of housing products

DONOR SIDE/STRATEGY/COORDINATION Why? 1. Improving living conditions/livelihoods 2. To lend and spur economic growth 3. Asset accumulation 4. Urbanization trends 5. Poverty focused approach 6. Sustainability 7. DEMAND How? 1. Policy dialogue with national governments to boost markets 2. Provide incentives for change 3. Provide funds for pilot projects  demonstration effects 4. Lower risk for private sector financing: ex: credit enhancement 5. Do no harm 6. Identify and support organic solutions 7. Demand-led not supply driven 8. Coordination-donors 9. Create apex institution – ex: NURM in India 10. Facilitation between different partners – govt’s, CBOs, FIs 11. Technical assistance: capacity building, management, products 12. Enabling environment – MFIs 13. Segregating housing product 14. Subsidiary company that specializes in housing 15. Subsidizing market research (demonstrate profitability and demand) 16. Look for enlightened leaders – champion 17. Demonstrate existing examples (CEMEX, ICICI Bank) 18. Innovative funds for special needs population (housing, water) 19. Housing and water, sanitation, infrastructure livelihoods

4. CLOSE-OUT CIRCLE [What has stood out for you? What, in terms of housing MF, is something that has been highlighted? Or something has been affirmed for you. 20-30 second sharing]

Robin Bell – The last portion stood out for her b/c she wasn’t aware of Habitat and others are increasingly getting out of housing finance and trying to develop strategic alliances w/ other MFIs. Struck her as odd and is unclear. Catherine Johnston – That there are many potential providers of housing MF Lauren Moser – Discussion about housing MF providers feeling they are a mono product industry. Helen Ng – 1) really good to have us all at the table. 2) need to diversify and broaden this table of discussion to come up with new ideas Dennis Ripley – Building off of L. Moser’s comment, how do you structure innovation inside of an org? Anne Sprinfors – Commented on the great opportunity to have all these people together Sashi Selvendran– Commented about the depth of experience in the room. Questions raised: How do we diversify and go beyond housing NGOS? Jane Katz – Many commonalities here. Example, from sticky note exercise, many issues were the same. Rob Schneider – We use different language to talk about the same thing. Important to keep eye on big picture even though we all focus on different points. Richard Shumann – Going off of other comments, main question is how do we bring in others? Commented on the difficulty of doing housing MF at scale. If it was easy we would have done it. Patrick Kelley – How to broaden size of room and how to bring it down in the field to deliver. Sohini Sarkar– Commented on the commonality around the room even though everyone is from different backgrounds. The fact that we agree will allow us to move forward. Monica Brand– Brought up the following questions: 1. Who we are talking about as target client? 2. Segmenting among MFIs. Are we talking about the majority of MFIs or are we talking about the few commercially sustainable ones? These would be totally different conversations. Sally Merrill - There is more of a divide than she thought b/c of commercially viable MFIs. Where is the champion here? Bruce Ferguson– The role for MFIs in housing varies substantially b/t regions and b/t MFIs. There are a few divisions. Where there is not much lending, MFIs will play a large role. In places like Brazil, India, Chile, there MFIs should play a niche role b/c they don’t have the capacity to reach scale in those markets. The role of MFIs depends on where you are, and what kind of MFI you are dealing with. Carlos Martin– Reiterate Bruce’s point. Look at context. Each city is different. Maybe should start thinking of what sort of housing and what sort of communities are we creating? Barry Lennon– Stuck by difference in ways in which specialized shelter organizations view the issue vs. finance orgs. Needs to be more dialogue. Thought before came here that were talking about the same thing and now think that we are not. Irene Vance– Reiterated the complexity of issue. On one hand saying funding is not the issue, but it is an issue in some regions. Every context has its own issue. When we talk about how to take this to scale, realize that scale is relative. One of the debates is should we be financing the housing or supporting new products. Look at what people are demanding from bottom. Not only housing product but collective problems (water). Listen to client base. How many housing products are there? Some of the complexities about housing may have to do with other factors (eg. access to land). Pelle Persson- Brought up the lack discussion of the view of local authorities. Still struggle with scale. Found differences b/t America and other countries as striking. Would have expected more ideas on how to get formal bank system to go downscale. Got new ideas on actors. Bruce Cameron– Was struck by how many orgs are working with new arrangements. Leads to what we’re doing with nontraditional deals and structures. Challenge you amongst yourselves. There are a handful of nontraditional partners that OPIC is reaching out to. PARTICIPANTS AND CONTACT INFORMATION: LAST NAME FIRST NAME ORGANIZATION EMAIL Bell Robin Opportunity International [email protected] Brand Monica Accion International [email protected] Cameron Bruce OPIC [email protected] Carlson Ron USAID [email protected] Ferguson Bruce Independent Consultant [email protected] Johnston Catherine DAI [email protected] Katz Jane Habitat for Humanity [email protected] Kelley Patrick Habitat for Humanity [email protected] Lennon Barry WOCCU [email protected] Martin Carlos DIG [email protected] Merrill Sally Urban Institute [email protected] Moser Lauren ShoreBank International [email protected] Ng Helen Acumen Fund [email protected] Persson Pelle Cities Alliance [email protected] Ripley Dennis Opportunity International [email protected] Sarkar Sohini CHF International [email protected] Schneider Rob USAID [email protected] Selvendran Sashi USAID [email protected] Shumann Richard CHF International [email protected] Springfors Anne SIDA [email protected] Vance Irene SIDA