Early Warning System

Regions

East Asia and Pacific
South Asia

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Financial Institutions

Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Canceled

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Borrower

Maj Invest

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Finance

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Amount (USD)

$ 12.50 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ FMO website

Updated in EWS Jan 24, 2024

Disclosed by Bank Oct 4, 2022

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

Original Disclosure is no longer available. According to the FMO Stakeholder Engagement Team, the transaction did not materialize.

The description below was disclosed by the FMO and scraped by the EWS, before the project was canceled and withdrew from the FMO's website.

MFIN I's investment objective is to achieve financial returns while creating a positive social impact by making venture capital investments in innovative fintech business models able to increase financial inclusion for unbanked and underbanked MSME's and consumers in Asia.

FMO is investing in MFIN I to support entrepreneurs in Asia in establishing and scaling businesses that contribute to increasing financial inclusion.

Early Warning System Project Analysis

For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

People Affected By This Project

People Affected By This Project refers to the communities of people likely to be affected positively or negatively by a project.

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO)

Financial Intermediary

A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.

Maj Invest (Financial Intermediary)

Private Actor Relationship

A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Private Actors Description

As stated by the FMO, Maj Invest FinTech Inclusion Fund I ("MFIN I") is a VC fintech fund established by the Danish Asset Manager - Maj Invest. Previously the Fund Manager has set up three private equity funds investing in financial institutions in emerging markets and six Nordic private equity funds in addition to providing other financial services in the Nordic region. This will be the first Maj Invest fund with a focus on early-stage fintech companies predominantly in emerging Asia.

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

No contacts available at the time of disclosure.

Financial Intermediary - Maj Invest:

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

As part of FMO's ex-ante disclosure (disclosure of transactions before contracting), you can send requests or questions for additional information to: disclosure@fmo.nl

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF FMO

Communities who believe they will be negatively affected by a project funded by the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) may be able to file a complaint with the Independent Complaints Mechanism, which is the joint independent accountability mechanism of the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) and the German Investment Corporation (KfW). A complaint can be filed in writing, by email, post, or online. The complaint can be filed in English or any other language of the complainant. The Independent Complaints Mechanism is comprised of a three-member Independent Expert Panel and it can provide either problem-solving, compliance review or both, in either order. Additional information about this accountability mechanism, including a guide and template for filing a complaint, can be found at: https://www.fmo.nl/independent-complaints-mechanism