Kiva has announced some impending social networking improvements to their platform, including support for lending teams. This is welcome news, not just in terms of total capacity for capital raised, but in opening opportunities for younger or first-time lenders who might be exposed to microfinance through school or church groups.
Another welcome and more immediate change is something they’re calling ‘liquidity’. Basically, Kiva has decided to refund partial payments back into user accounts as they’re received from the borrowers rather than wait til loans are paid in full (often, 12 or 18 months). This will increase the rate at which funds can be turned around and reinvested. As such, I got a few small partial payments, letting me fund Ms. Pen above, whose single word description for need of a loan was “Pigs.” Pigs it is, then. This is my first loan to Southeast Asia.
UPDATE: Ok, what the heck. Here’s mine.
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