Module 6

Green Economy: Microfinance
Microfinance is a form of ________ service in which very small amounts of credit are provided to poor people. The ________ can be as low as 10 dollar and are often used to buy material to make craft products or to buy farm animals. While the ________ paid on these loans can be high, it is still much lower than that charged by unofficial moneylenders.

One unusual feature of ________ is that loans are make to groups of people rather than to ________. This is because ________ people usually do not have any assets to provide as ________ on the loan and do not know anyone able to ________ it. If one member of the ________ group is unable to repay their part of the loan, then the other members (normally totaling about 10 people) are expected to pay that part.  The ________ pressure involved means that 98% of Grameen Bank's loans are repaid.

Grameen Bank was founded by Muhammad Yunus in 1974 in Bangladesh and is still the ________ and most well-known. By 2010 it had lent over 8 billion dollar to some of the poorest people in the world, in over 43 countries. The bank and its founder were jointly awarded the ________ Peace Price in 2006.

Lloyd's of London hit by record catastrophe claims

Lloyd's of London made a £516m loss last year after paying out the largest catastrophe claims on record.
The 324-year-old insurance market, which operates out of Richard Rogers's famous "inside-out building" in the City, paid out £4.6bn in disaster claims after earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, storms in the US and floods in Thailand and Australia. Total catastrophe claims for the global industry reached $107bn (£67bn) last year, according to insurer Aon Benfield.
The unprecedented series of natural disasters forced up the total Lloyd's payout to £12.9bn, or £1.07 for every £1 paid in premiums last year.
The Thai floods, in October, were the biggest disaster for Lloyd's in term of payouts last year, with total claims estimated at £1.4bn.
Richard Ward, Lloyd's chief executive, said the area flooded in Thailand was the equivalent of "seven industrial parks the size of Birmingham – and they remained underwater for a couple of months".
He said the Thai floods were a "double whammy" for Japan because 80% of the buildings were owned by Japanese technology companies, many of which had transferred production to Thailand following the country's devastating earthquake and tsunami in March.
Ward said £1.2bn of tsunami payouts were lower than for the Thai floods because Japanese companies tended to insure their businesses with local insurers. He added that "worryingly" for the people of Japan, a lot of properties were not insured at all.
The scale of the payouts dragged Lloyd's to its biggest full-year loss since the 11 September attacks in America in 2001, which led to the market of 80 insurance syndicates reporting a £3.1bn loss. In 2010, the company made a £2.2bn profit.
"Make no mistake, 2011 was a difficult year for the insurance industry," Ward said. "Given the scale of the claims, a loss is unsurprising, but it reflects what we're here to do: help communities and businesses rebuild after disaster."