News & Progress

June 2010: Arcubus receives its first investment pledges and donations. Pledges for investments and donations begin to arrive, from institutions including St Paul’s Cathedral, Holy Trinity Brompton and the Allen & Overy Foundation as well as from some generous individuals. The trustees are very grateful for these early indications of support and look forward to building on them.

Arcubus Launched in the Guildhall on Wednesday 17th March 2010 at a Dinner attended by Sir Michael Snyder (Patron), the Bishop of London (President), the High Commissioner of Mozambique and a number of City leaders and microfinance experts. Click here to download the press release.

Business Plans and Due Diligence Reports on Arcubus’s four Microfinance Partners are now available to download. Arcubus is very grateful to Thibaud Ponchon for his dedicated work in producing these for Arcubus pro bono.

Arcubus has received its first donations following collections taken at the St Paul's Institute lecture series: 'Money and Wellbeing' in Autumn 2009. A total of £3,129 including Gift Aid was raised.

Tuesday 26th January 2010: Mark Field MP Member of Parliament for the City of London and Westminster, described Arcubus in a debate in the House of Commons today as a 'phenomenally important way' to help people in the City understand microfinance. Download the relevant extract from Hansard here.

He argued that microfinance could be an effective supplement to more traditional patterns of aid since it was more sustainable and encouraged entrepreneurism and independence. Annette Brooke MP, chair of the All-Party Group on Microfinance, spoke of the positive impacts of microfinance on education and long-term growth, and Gareth Thomas MP, Minister of State for International Development, noted that fewer than 1 in 5 people in Africa had access to formal banking services and the government was keen to encourage greater outreach and depth of microfinance services.