HSBC launches microfinance program

HSBC launched a new microfinance program on June 7 committing funds over Rs. 13 million. The project titled 'Empowering Urban Women Entrepreneurs', and carried out in collaboration with South Asia Partnership Sri Lanka (SAPSRI) aims to raise the income levels of women living in underprivileged urban areas in Colombo to avail themselves of regular banking facilities.

By providing these local communities an opportunity for self-sustenance and livelihood, it is hoped they will eventually be in a position to grow their business into a thriving enterprise.

The aim of the program is to increase entrepreneurial capabilities of a group of three-hundred women through micro-credit, in Colombo and its suburbs. Initiated by HSBC's Corporate Banking sector, the program focuses on giving women entrepreneurs from low-income groups access to credit facilities, which might not otherwise have been afforded to them.

Under this program, microfinance will be used as a tool to formalise the existing saving patterns of the urban poor, thus relieving many of them from money-lenders who lend at very high rates. It will also assist in making them creditworthy, putting them in a position to deal directly with formal financial institutions.

Speaking at the launch of the program, Director of SAPSRI Dr. Padma Ratnayake, said, "South Asia Partnership is happy to be associated in bridging the link between HSBC and a marginalised community who would never have approached such an international financial institution otherwise."