Congratulations to BancoSol, Bolivia.

On September 4th, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced the winners of its annual Microenterprise Development Awards, recognizing microfinance institutions for excellence in promoting microenterprise. Among the prestigious winners is BancoSol, which won the award for regulated financial institutions. A microfinance pioneer in Bolivia, BancoSol was originally established in 1984 as a foundation to serve low-income entrepreneurs and became the world's first private microfinance bank in 1992. By 2007, it had more than 100,000 clients, a $170 million loan portfolio and $150 million in deposits according to the IDB.

(source: ACCION's newsletter)