On October 5 and 6, the members of the Proxfin network (www.proxfin.org) met in Asunción, Paraguay, for their fifth international seminar which was focused on the topic of housing finance. Forty managers and administrators from DID partner community finance institutions representing 17 different countries from around the world attended the meeting.
Keynote presentations were made by Oscar Grajales Herce, Director of Promotion for Mexico’s federal mortgage corporation, the Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal, Louis Rhéaume, Director of Credit Operations and Collection at the Fédération des caisses Desjardins and Pierre Giguère, Director of Housing Finance at DID. During a round table session, seven Proxfin member institutions also gave presentations detailing their own experience working with housing finance.
The seminar meetings, presentations and workshop for the participants shed light on the immense potential that housing finance can offer emerging and developing countries. The many challenges that still restrict access to housing for so many families were also highlighted. Issues such as risk management; maturity matching, marketing and client-member financial literacy were also a
major part of the discussions at the conference.
The conclusions reached at the seminar appear in the Asuncion Declaration on housing finance.
The Proxfin annual general meeting was held October 7. The members adopted an official environmental policy and a work plan for the coming year. Formal approval was given to new members FECECAM from Benin and EFC Tanzania. In a unanimous decision, the members decided to hold the 2012 Proxfin annual meeting in Quebec City during the International Summit of Cooperatives, October 8-12, 2012, which Desjardins is co-organizing.