SPBD Microfinance Network

South Pacific Business Development (SPBD) Founder and President Gregory F. Casagrande launched the SPBD network in the Pacific Island nation of Samoa in 2000. Following the success of the first microfinance institution (MFI), SPBD launched replications in Tonga (2009), Fiji (2010), Solomon Islands (2012) and Vanauatu (2017). SPBD Singapore is the holding company of each of the operating SPBD MFI's and owns 100% of SPBD Samoa, SPBD Tonga, SPBD Fiji, SPBD Solomon Islands, and SPBD Vanuatu. It is responsible for launching more Greenfield microfinance operations in other Pacific Island countries such as in the Solomon Islands in the second half of 2012. SPBD Singapore is 100% owned by SPBD Delaware, the US based holding company. SPBD plans to expand the network to other countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia region and eventually to Central America and the Caribbean. Regulatory environment permitting, all of SPBD’s microfinance institutions will be registered as Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs). The creation of a region-wide microfinance network would help more than 50,000 poor Pacific islanders find a meaningful path out of poverty and could directly impact another 300,000 immediate family members in the region by 2015. The mission of the SPBD network is to improve the quality of life of families living in poverty by providing unsecured credit, training, and ongoing motivation and guidance to help them start, grow and maintain micro-businesses, build assets, as well as, finance home improvements and childhood education. SPBD's sister organization is the MicroDreams Foundation, a non-profit investor that closely partners with SPBD to empower the poor to lift themselves out of poverty through meaningful economic opportunity.