Author: Christian Ruehmer
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Reflecting on Impact Investing
It is now over 20 years that I have dedicated at least parts of my work efforts to a space currently known as Impact Investing. My first projects included supporting the design of a summer academy for Microfinance and supporting a cooperative bank in Bolivia with product costing. The sector evolved dramatically over the past…
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Accepting Trade Offs for Impact Investments?
This week I had the pleasure of supporting a student writing a thesis about Impact Investments. The first question made me stumble already: Does your firm accept a trade-off between impact and financial return? While it is a common question in our industry, I think it represents a fundamentally flawed approach to the subject. The…
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I can do it!
3 months ago, I had enough. There are so many recommendations, reports, YouTube clips trying to motivate you and showing you how easy it is to get in shape. I always tried to follow the recommendations for a day or two, just to fall back to the usual routine. My work schedule wasn’t really supportive…
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Quantifying Qualitative Information in SME Lending
A major challenge in the risk assessment of SME borrowers is the largely unstructured and of qualitative nature of information. Financial Institutions find it difficult to approach the assessment this information which often includes only rudimentary and un-audited financial statements. Mass market retail loans are easier to evaluate because of the larger share of quantifiable…