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Falkensteiner Str. 77 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Tel.: + 49 69 90 50 188 - 0 |
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IPC at a glance
IPC is a consulting firm which focuses exclusively on issues and projects in the field of international development co-operation. Since its founding in 1981, IPC has specialised and grown while maintaining the corporate values that guide our work. Our experience has persuaded us that our continued success depends upon maintaining the focus on our mission and ensuring that our core values remain our top priority. For more than 20 years, the shared goal of all of the projects which we have advised and supported has been to provide micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) access to financial services, especially credit, offered at fair terms and conditions. Our projects make a genuine contribution to sustainable long-term development processes because they are aimed at founding or strengthening financial institutions that are able to maintain dynamic and profitable business relationships with the target group. Loans provided in a responsible manner, reliable savings products and punctually executed payment transactions may seem to be basic banking services that can be taken for granted. However, in developing countries and transition economies they remain rare commodities. The lack of such services prevents or hinders the organic growth of the MSME sector, and with it the dynamic growth in incomes and employment. IPC is a project manager, consultant and investor. These mutually complementary roles accelerate our learning and growth. From this diversified base we design integrated project approaches, implement projects successfully and ensure their long-term sustainability. Our clients are international financial institutions and development agencies such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Kreditanstalt f?r Wiederaufbau (KfW), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, FMO and the DOEN Foundation in the Netherlands. While we trade as IPC, our legal name registered in Frankfurt is Internationale Projekt Consult GmbH. Mission IPC GmbH is a leading consulting firm in the field of international development co-operation. We see our task as that of implementing rationally designed and economically efficient projects, all of which share the common goal of achieving tangible and lasting improvements in the living conditions of marginalised businesses and households. Our partners are development organisations and institutions in developing countries and transition economies. When dealing with our partners, we are straightforward and open; in our work we uphold values such as social responsibility, a culture of open communication, respect, dedication and thoroughness. IPC places high demands on its employees and on its project partners. This is because truly excellent projects can be implemented only with staff who are highly qualified and motivated, and who have the support of dedicated and credible partners. The projects which we take on and implement must meet equally high standards: against these standards, we decline to undertake projects that pursue the wrong goals, create inefficient incentive structures, or lack credible sponsors and support. To do otherwise would misdirect our energies, dull our skills and squander our reputation as well as the funds of those who contract us. In its 24 years of successful operations, IPC has gained an international reputation as a successful partner for microfinance projects. This success is in essence an outgrowth of our willingness to engage in the critical debate regarding "best practice". Our engagement at this level has, over more than two decades, enabled us to play a significant role in defining best practice and in the continued effort to refine it. Project Management IPC advises existing banks in developing countries and transition economies in their efforts to develop a capacity to lend to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). We find it advisable to work with existing banks when certain conditions apply: in countries which cover a very large area, or in very small markets, the founding of a target group-oriented financial institution might prove too costly and time-consuming, or the new institution might unduly dominate its market. The goal of these complex consulting projects is to build capacity in the financial sector for lending to MSMEs. They therefore involve setting up micro lending departments in a number of different banks. These projects are long-term in nature, because they require the training of large numbers of loan officers, implementing the appropriate procedures, and ensuring that all functions necessary for smooth lending operations are in place. These activities include entry-level and advanced training, back-office functions, IT support, auditing and marketing. IPC assumes responsibility for project management; in addition to providing advisory services, we have an obligation as a company to ensure that significant results are achieved in lending to the local target group. In implementing this so-called "downscaling" approach, simply transferring knowledge or monitoring the credit lines provided by public-sector donors is not sufficient to create a sustainable supply of credit for the target group. Banks must make fundamental institutional commitments and achieve a volume of lending to MSMEs which makes a substantial contribution to their overall revenue. When banks fail to engage at this level, making only cosmetic or half-hearted changes, we respond through incentives, persuasion or pressure (as appropriate) focused on the banks being advised. Success requires that the owners of the banks be genuinely committed to developing MSME lending. MSME credit operations are usually only one of the activities, and seldom the main activity of the commercial banks we advise. We generally achieve better lending results in the institutions which focus only on the MSME target group. This is particularly so in those banks which we manage ourselves. However, downscaling commercial partner banks does offer the advantage of creating competition in the financial sector right from the start of a project. This leads to an expansion in the supply of credit - particularly in remote regions - and an overall increase in efficiency. In markets in which we and our partners have founded a financial institution, we can achieve this impact only indirectly, through a demonstration effect that, by definition, stimulates competition. Our best-known consulting projects currently underway are the "Russia Small Business Fund", the Ukraine Micro Lending Programme, the "Kazakhstan Small Business Programme", the "German-Armenian Fund", "Micro and Small Enterprise Finance Facility" in Kyrgyzstan and the "China Development Bank Microfinance Project (CMFB)". |
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