robert wray PLLC (RW) advises international development institutions working in developing, emerging and transition economies, including post-conflict and fragile states. With an emphasis on microfinance and small and medium enterprise development, we assist our clients on a wide variety of matters, including legal and regulatory reforms, structuring operations in host countries and complex cross-border financing transactions.
RW attorneys have recently participated in the following projects:
- Advising CHF International, a U.S. based international development organization working in conflict-affected and developing countries, in connection with the transformation of its financial services programs in Iraq, Jordan and Palestine into locally regulated financial institutions. RW attorneys also assisted with establishing a management company in Lebanon for operations in Iraq and with preparing the related inter-company agreements. In addition, the RW team assisted with forming a company for microfinance operations in Iraq and with preparing the documentation for a loan portfolio acquisition and servicing transaction in connection with a $90 million OPIC loan facility for the Iraq program.
- Representing FINCA International, a Washington DC based international microfinance organization that provides financial services to the world’s lowest-income entrepreneurs in 23 countries, in connection with the transformation of its non-profit affiliates in Armenia, Georgia and Nicaragua into locally regulated commercial financial institutions. The projects included structuring the strategic transfer and assignment of assets and liabilities to the new entity, and documentation of the related financing facilities and inter-company agreements. The RW team also assisted with the review of remittances agreements with major U.S. and regional payment service providers.
- Advising Catholic Relief Services, an international humanitarian organization operating in over 90 countries, in connection with its divestment from microfinance institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Macedonia.
- Advising a U.S. based international microfinance organization regarding opportunities for political risk insurance (PRI) coverage and appropriate approaches to the PRI marketplace. The RW team also performed a detailed analysis of a PRI policy form for the microfinance sector and advised a U.S. microfinance organization in connection with a dispute involving the confiscation of its assets by a government in Central Asia.