Message-ID: <01bd788c$1c147820$LocalHost@dell> Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 22:12:59 -0300 From: Arnaud Ventura <mailto:aventura@PLANETBANK.ORG> Subject: Annoucement : The PlaNetBank To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
THE PLANETBANK mailto:aventura@planetbank.org
Dear Friends,
In December 1997, Dr. Jacques Attali(1) made a proposal to develop a network-based organisation to fight poverty, using the Internet as its supporting medium. This proposal has led to the formation of a team coordinated by Arnaud Ventura.
The project has already received top-level international support. Members of the advisory council already include Professor Yunus at the Grameen Bank, Mr. Rocard European Deputy and Chairman of the Committee of Development and Cooperation (European parliament) and Mr. Ponzellini Vice-President of the European Investment Bank.
Please find attached the Executive Summary of this joint initiative: The PlaNetBank. We hope that you will be interested by this initiative and will contact us soon to join.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
ARNAUD VENTURA
(1) Professor, writer, special adviser to Francois Mitterrand, founder and first president of EBRD, president of an international consulting firm.
The PlaNetBank will be a new Virtual International Finance Institution (VIFI). It will aim at alleviating poverty by providing micro-credits to the poorest through loans to Micro Finance Institution (MFI), Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) and to other organizations or individuals developing small development projects.
The PlaNetBank operations will be driven by a new concept: the network-centric institution. It will operate on the Internet, providing loans and equity over the network. It will also use the Internet as a work platform, involving several teams of experts that will participate through net-working in credit committees to the analysis of the credits.
The PlaNetBank operational objectives will be efficiency, rapidity of reaction and transparency. As a virtual bank, the PlaNetBank will be ruled by a set of rigorous procedures that will allow it to be most efficient. Operating on the Internet with the latest technologies available, rapidity of reaction and transparency are inherent to its concept.
The PlaNetBank will first focus on AFRICA and CHILDREN. It will aim at improving the situation of the children on a continent that most needs it: Africa. Nevertheless, its products and services will be available all over the world through the Internet.
The PlaNetBank will use the latest technologies of information to provide its services to the poorest. Its main products will be:
* Micro-credit packages to MFI for redistribution to the poorest * Small loans to NGO and other organizations or individuals for project implementation * Equity for investment in small projects in close cooperation with private sector investment
The PlaNetBank resources will come from three categories of shareholders: the general public, the private/public sector, and PlaNetBank clients. All shareholders will be members of the Board of Directors. The smallest ones will take part in the Board through the Virtual Board of Directors (VBD). The VBD will be constantly in activity on the Internet and the Board of Directors meet once a month virtually and once a year physically. It will be in charge of defining, with PlaNetBank's General Management, the strategy and orientations of the bank. In addition the PlaNetBank loans' resources will come from the financial markets where it will raise funds to provide to its clients through micro-credit.
The PlaNetBank will not work alone. Its concept itself involves the implication of a wide range of partners: from the general public, that will participate through their donations or as being part of our expert networks to institutional or private partners' members of our Worldwide Network of Partners. The partners will belong to the following categories: technical, commercial, information and expert partners. They will support us by their services, products or by helping us on the field with their resources (country experts) or skills (commercial partners). In addition, the PlaNetBank will work closely with the Micro Finance Institutions. With some of its more representative members (Grameen) at its Board it will be able to fully answer MFI´s needs.
The PlaNetBank is by its own nature and concept a new challenge. It aims by using the latest technologies of information, at addressing a much greater one, probably one of the greatest challenges of this end of century: poverty.
The PlaNetBank needs support from people like you, concerned by the challenge of growing poverty. If you want to join please write us!