Two Foundation partners obtain Smart Certification

© Philippe Lissac

In 2019, the Smart Campaign recognized the client protection efforts of several Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation partners by awarding them Smart Certification. The Smart Campaign is a global initiative that aims to integrate client protection principles into the financial inclusion sector. The Smart Campaign's Client Protection Certification program publicly recognizes institutions that provide financial services to low-income households and whose treatment standards meet the Smart Campaign's seven client protection principles. These principles cover important areas such as pricing, transparency, fair and respectful treatment, and the prevention of over-indebtedness.

The certification program includes a set of rigorous standards against which institutions are assessed by independent third-party assessors accredited by the Smart Campaign. The assessors are specialized rating agencies with extensive experience and have analyzed hundreds of institutions to date.

In 2019, in addition to the work of Chamroeun, a partner of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation since 2010, this initiative also publicly recognized the work of two other microfinance institutions, partners of the Foundation, in terms of client protection by granting them Certification: Musoni (Kenya) and Salym Finance (Kyrgyzstan). These institutions thus joined the nearly 120 other organizations specializing in financial inclusion, in more than 40 countries, certified since the launch of the program in January 2013.

For more information on the Foundation's partners, click here.