The Creditinfo Chronicle
Happy Halloween!
Our colleagues at Creditinfo Solutions in Prague, Czech Republic are celebrating All Hallow’s Eve in style. You can see in the photos, Almar (CEO, Creditinfo International) was a cowboy. At the team meeting, he made a grand entrance, strutting his cowboy boots to the main theme from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFa1-kciCb4
Player of the Month – October 2014
Creditinfo Tanzania
In the middle of October, Paul Randall and the team at Creditinfo Tanzania, delivered a 2 day training course under the umbrella of the Creditinfo Academy in Dar Es Salaam. The theme was “Introduction to Credit Risk Management“. The team prepared for this for a number of months in advance to ensure the success of the event for a number of attendees from Tanzania and South Sudan.
Read more here:
Farewells
For those who don’t already know, Alex Lazarov, CEO Creditinfo Solutions, has recently parted with the company on good terms due to personal reasons. We would like to send our best wishes to Alex and wish him well in any new adventures and hope he is able to return to the Creditinfo Family in the future.
Supporting a Better Understanding of Credit Risk Management in Tanzania
Creditinfo Tanzania, in cooperation with the Creditinfo Academy, recently delivered a 2 day “Introduction to Risk Management” training course in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
The interactive workshop took place at the Ledger Plaza Beach Hotel on 21st and 22nd October 2014 with attendees including senior bankers, micro finance and other professionals responsible for maintaining top quality loan portfolios, identifying risk management opportunities and designing financial solutions for clients in an evolving credit environment.
Out with the old and in with the new
The offices of Creditinfo Solutions in Prague, Czech Republic are currently undergoing a major refurbishment to enhance the working environment for our employees. Creditinfo staff are highly valued and we want to ensure that they look forward to coming to work each day by improving their working conditions. We are investing in improving our facilities to boost morale and to create a work space that will promote more ideas, creativity and innovation throughout the team.
Creditinfo Malta goes Pink
Creditinfo Malta wishes to thank Ms. Vella Wallbank for her presence, and urges everyone to join in the Pink October Malta Campaign and raise awareness of the cause and to go get checked as it could save your life!
WCCRC 2014 Dubai
Networking and signing new deals
This month Reynir, Almar, Kiddi, Sammi, Seth and Tomas attended WCCRC 2014 in DubaiReynir, Sammi, Seth and Almar were “photo bombing”! One way of getting your face known!
The World Consumer Credit Reporting Conference (WCCRC) 2014 www.wccrc2014.com is a three day event where senior executives from credit bureaus around the globe as well as credit card companies, lenders and government officials attend to discuss issues that have an impact on the industry. Approximately 250 delegates from over 60 countries attend this Conference. This year was the first time in the MENA region.
Our team not only attended the conference and networked with top industry experts and influencers, but also arranged private meetings with what we hope will be potential partners. Watch this space!
4th Annual Central Asia & Caucasus Microfinance Forum
Last week, Paul Randall, Chairman of Creditinfo Georgia & Director of Business Development Creditinfo International and Alexander Gomiashvili, CEO Creditinfo Georgia, attended the 4th Annual Central Asia and Caucasas Microfinance Forum in Tblisi, Georgia.
The Forum focused on the main opportunities and challenges for investments in the region, as well as, on the main issues in responsible finance. Paul Randall chaired the Forum and also delivered a presentation to the many attendees from the industry.
“Queen of the Slum” visits Creditinfo Iceland
Lucy Odipo, better known to most as “Mama Lucy” or the “Queen of the Slum”, is a truly amazing woman. Mrs. Odipo is the initial founder of The Little Bees Children Self Help Group and currently serves as Director. A Kenyan national, Mrs. Odipo has played a vital role in establishing vital projects in Nairobi, such as The Little Bees School a Nursery School & Daycare to provide critical care and support for deprived children.. Through the school and related projects , Mrs.Odipo and her team provide much needed education and help to individuals and families to access medical care and to secure shelter.
Lucy lives amongst the 500,000 inhabitants of the slums of Mathare in Nairobi, Kenya. Most of the people live in tiny, one-room homes made from whatever materials they can find. Conditions are dismal with sewage and trash flowing through the streets along with crime, sickness and death running rampant. There are no government services like water or electricity. Continue reading »
Product Development – doing the right thing the right way
Today, Brynja Baldursdottir, Director of Sales & Product Development, Creditinfo Iceland, delivered a presentation to the Creditinfo Academy entitled “Product Development – Doing the right thing the right way”.
To read Brynja’s biography please click here
You can watch the video recording, click here
And for the PowerPoint presentation click here
Congratulations to Chris Sanders, Business Change Partners
We’d like to send our congratulations to Mr. Chris Sanders from Business Change Partners.
Chris was announced the winner of the CCR Contribution for Contribution to the Credit Industry Credit Excellence Award at the Gala Dinner last night.
Commiserations to GB Group plc who along with Creditinfo were also finalists in this category.
CCR-i will be posting all other winners and finalists for the other awards on their website soon.
We’d also like to thank CCR-i for their excellent organisation of this event and to the judges who we know put a lot of time and effort into reviewing the hundreds of lengthy applications.
Creditinfo invited by IFC to work to expand access to credit
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Bank Al-Maghrib, the Central Bank of Morocco, organised the 5th international symposium to train African and MENA central banks and financial regulators on financial infrastructure and risk management that will help smaller businesses gain access to finance and boost economic growth.
Creditinfo, by invitation of IFC, along with other invitees including senior personnel from Central Banks, lenders’ association, doors, MFI associations, Private Credit Bureau, banking supervisors and policy makers met towards the end of September in Rabat, Morocco. Representatives were principally from Africa and the Middle East, but also from Central Asia, particularly Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan and a few participants were from Asia, including Indonesia and Philippines. The four-day event brought together some 40 international experts and 150 attendees from 35 central banks and 50 countries.
Congratulations
A baby boy for the Carter family.
Congratulations to Andrew Carter and his wife who recently moved back to the UK from Tanzania. They have added to the Carter family….. A baby boy, Max, arrived by C section on 2nd October at 7.5 lb. Mother and baby doing well. Oh, and Andrew is auditioning for ‘Scrubs’ soon!
Players of the Month – Creditinfo Iceland
They recently moved offices without disruption to their services and working day. They have moved to a lower floor in the same building so the address and contact information remains the same. The recent growth and future development plans require them to have a larger space, but the key reason for the move was to ensure everyone is together on the same floor, rather than spread over 2 floors as before and also to improve their working environment.
The Senior Management Team Meeting
We’d like to thank the senior management for most of them travelling a many miles to a small town called Rodgau, just outside Frankfurt, Germany. The team got together for 2 days of training and discussions for the annual senior management meeting. Each office discussed their successes and challenges from the last 12 months and highlighted a few areas which they will be working on in the coming year.
Training covered Product Development, Sales Coaching, Value Added Products, the Company Values, Lead Generation online & offline and looking in detail at “Strongest In …..”. Reynir discussed the financials and our goals for the future. One of our primary goals is 50 countries by 2020.
Sat around the table were 30 individuals who spoke 22 different languages highlighting what a multicultural team we have. Next year, there are likely to be a lot more new faces who will join the current team.
Although the 2 days were quite intense and quite long, especially for those who had flown in that morning or those on long haul flights who flew in the night before, they managed to kick back a little when the whole team played paintball. Yes, we got to shoot at each other and at Reynir and Almar!
