Mr. Manuel Montoya
Director and General Manager
Mibanco
Paseo Colon # 280
Lima, Peru

Mr. Montoya is General Manager of Mibanco, Peru, a financial institution with 78,000 clients and a portfolio of more than $61 million. Mibanco's mission is to promote the economic development of Peru's low-income majority by providing high quality credit and other financial services to microentrepreneurs. Mibanco currently has 25 offices throughout metropolitan Lima, Callao, Chincha, Chiclayo and Huancayo. In 1969, ACCION International assisted in founding Mibanco's predecessor, Acción Comunitaria del Perú (ACP) as a private, nonprofit community development organization. In 1982, with the backing of Banco Wiese, one of the largest banks in Peru, ACP began microlending in the southern section of metropolitan Lima. In May 1998, ACP became the majority shareholder and operative manager of a new venture called Mibanco (Banco de la Microempresa S.A.), Peru's first for-profit, fully-regulated commercial bank dedicated to microenterprise. Mibanco's initial $16 million in capital came entirely from the private sector. Mibanco's clients are market vendors, seamstresses, bakers, pot-makers and others who support their families by starting small, often home-based businesses. Many live in the "pueblos jóvenes," the very poor shantytowns on the outskirts of Lima. Sixty percent of Mibanco's clients are women, 19% are group borrowers and 81% have individual loans, of which 71% are unguaranteed.