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Causes: Economic Development, International, International Economic Development, Microfinance
Mission: Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC) is a not-for-profit, public-private partnership whose mission is to help build the sound financial systems needed to support robust market economies in transitional and developing countries. FSVC’s core work concentrates on strengthening commercial banking systems, developing central bank capabilities, expanding access to finance, and building capital markets. Major additional areas of work include the legal framework for the financial system, payments system development, insurance and pension reform, and the combating of money laundering and financial corruption. FSVC structures practical, results-oriented technical assistance and training missions staffed by senior financial sector practitioners who serve as unpaid volunteers. FSVC was founded at Presidential initiative in 1990 by the late Cyrus Vance, former U.S. Secretary of State, and John Whitehead, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and former Co-Chairman of Goldman Sachs.
Results: Over the past twenty years, almost 8,500 experts from the international financial, legal, and regulatory communities have taken part in more than 2,500 FSVC missions, reaching more than 35,000 counterparts in over 50 developing and transition countries.
Geographic areas served: FSVC’s work in recent years has been focused in the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Albania, and Russia and other CIS countries.
Programs: Fsvc has been implementing projects in egypt for over a decade. In 2014, fsvc implemented 14 projects under its u. S. Department of state's middle east partnership (mepi)-funded program to help increase access to finance for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (smes). These projects included conducting a training on venture capital funding for the egyptian social fund for development, and training sme lending staff at the national bank of egypt on how to evaluate the sme market requirements and develop a strategy to address them.
with funding from the united states agency for international development (usaid), via the volunteers for economic growth alliance (vega), fsvc implemented 20 projects in 2014 under its financial sector development program in albania. This program aims to promote financial stability in albania and strengthen its financial sector by improving the quality and consistency of financial sector regulations and supervision. It also aims to create an enabling environment for mobile payment development to increase access to financial services for the under-banked. Fsvc projects included consultations with the bank of albania on anti-money laundering requirements for mobile payments, and conducting an expert review for the bank of albania of the legal and regulatory framework of savings and credit associations.
with funding from usaid, fsvc has been implementing a program of technical assistance since 2011 to help strengthen regional financial integration across the five member states of the east african community (eac). These five member states include burundi, kenya, rwanda, tanzania and uganda. In 2014, fsvc implemented 10 projects under this program, including facilitating a training on international pension standards, a workshop on how to promote cross-border insurance operations, and building the capacity of insurance regulators in implementing a risk-based approach to supervision.
various missions to europe, the middle east and asia to build the financial structures necessary for a sound banking system.