The administrative burden for financial institutions is high, which compels non-banking providers of micro-credit to weigh up the advantages of having a banking licence (and thereby access to relatively cheap deposit funding) against the disadvantages of being a regulated entity.

20. Stresses that the GEEREF must give priority to serving the specific needs of the Least Developed Countries and to interventions that have demonstrated strong linkages to poverty reduction; notes that the scope of the GEEREF is to support regional subfunds for Sub-Saharan Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Island States, the countries of the European Neighbourhood (including North Africa and non-EU Eastern Europe), Latin America and Asia; calls, however, for special emphasis on serving the needs of the ACP countries; calls on the Commission to ensure that funding is not allocated to only one or two subfunds when appropriations are distr ...[+++]ibuted; strongly recommends that any subfunds for China and Russia, if included in the portfolio, do not absorb all the available resources and that they should be of particular interest as pilot-projects;

20. Stresses that the GEEREF must give priority to serving the specific needs of the Least Developed Countries and to interventions that have demonstrated strong linkages to poverty reduction; notes that the scope of the GEEREF is to support regional subfunds for Sub-Saharan Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Island States, the countries of the European Neighbourhood (including North Africa and non-EU Eastern Europe), Latin America and Asia; calls, however, for special emphasis on serving the needs of the ACP countries; calls on the Commission to ensure that funding is not allocated to only one or two subfunds when appropriations are distr ...[+++]ibuted; strongly recommends that any subfunds for China and Russia, if included in the portfolio, do not absorb all the available resources and that they should be of particular interest as pilot-projects;

The first Lomé Convention was signed in 1975 by 46 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and the nine Member States of the European Community. It created a model of development cooperation that was interregional (between two groups of countries at different levels of integration), multidimensional (covering both development aid and trade), and contractual (it was concluded for five years and the overall budget provided the guaranteed funding essential for the ACP countries’ strategy and long-term planning of their development projects. The most original feature of this cooperation was the idea of partnership, which conferred equality ...[+++]between the signatories and respect for their sovereignty and their mutual interests, and which was given practical form by the ACP-EU joint institutions. In fact the Member States’ aim, via Lomé, was to devise a framework for their relations with their former colonies, now independent.

The delegations are opposed to the proposed liberalization of investment fund markets, and discussions are currently at a standstill, in particular on the following points: * deposit funds or money market funds: half the delegations are in favour of introducing a substantial proportion of bank deposits, and half are against; * feeder funds: four delegations (Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal) are opposed to the inclusion of these funds in the Directive, and in any event there is no majority in favour; * only three Member States (Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands) are in favour of the Commission proposal that the freedom to pro ...[+++]vide services should apply to depositaries.

I can remember Americans coming up here with their money and getting term deposits, and the Royal Bank was offering these U.S. dollar term deposits at a higher rate.