contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . october 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message south pacific business development spbd type non banking financial company industry finance founded 2000 headquarters newark new jersey area served samoa tonga fiji key people gregory casagrande founder number of employees over 50 website http www.spbdmicrofinance.com south pacific business development is a network of microfinance institutions working in fiji samoa and tonga to eliminate poverty . its aim is to provide women in poor rural villages with the opportunity to start grow and maintain sustainable income generating micro enterprises build assets through saving as well as finance home improvements and childhood education . spbd also provides its clients with a range of training financial services and ongoing motivation so that they can climb permanently out of poverty . contents 1 history 2 network 3 statistics 4 references 5 external links history edit south pacific business development began in the small rural island of samoa in 2000 . this microfinance organization was created by gregory f. casagrande to provide economic opportunities to women in poor communities in samoa in order to improve their lifestyle as well as their families . several years later in july 2009 spbd established a replication of spbd samoa in the kingdom of tonga named spbd microfinance tonga ltd. at the end of 2010 another replication was launched in fiji spbd microfinance fiji ltd meeting the same success as spbd samoa and spbd tonga . a third replication is in the works and is planning on being launched towards the end of 2012 in the solomon islands . network edit at the end of 2010 south pacific business development created a holding company called south pacific business development microfinance holdings limited liability company delaware in united states of america and placed underneath it another holding company named south pacific business development microfinance holdings pte. limited in singapore . the delaware based entity serves as the gateway for united states investors to put their money into the spbd network while the singapore based company plans to operate as a regional microfinance platform in the pacific . the south pacific business development microfinance holdings pte. limited in singapore owns spbd samoa spbd tonga and spbd fiji and is responsible for launching other greenfield microfinance operations in other pacific island countries such as in the solomon islands at the end of 2012 . all of spbd s microfinance institutions are registered as non bank financial institutions nbfis with spbd samoa recently having made the transformation from a non governmental organization ngo status . statistics edit since distributing its first micro enterprise loan in january 2000 spbd has provided over 31 000 loans approx . us 15 000 000 to create opportunities for about 14 000 samoan families in 415 villages build small businesses . references edit external links edit south pacific business development website rainer arnhold fellows gregory f. casagrande 1 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title south pacific business development & oldid 647145964 categories microfinance organizationshidden categories articles with a promotional tone from october 2014all articles with a promotional tone navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 14 february 2015 at 20 19 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view