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United Kingdom
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Loans definition What does Loans mean? Loans are agreements to advance money on terms of repayment, usually with interest. In pensions practice, this covers any arrangement where occupational pension scheme assets are lent. In Great Britain, legislation defines “employer-related investments” and strictly restricts them: section 40 of the Pensions Act 1995 (mirrored in Northern Ireland legislation) and the Occupational Pension Schemes (Investment) Regulations 2005 prohibit loans to the sponsoring employer or to persons connected with, or associated with, the employer, and ban giving guarantees or security for the employer’s obligations. Other employer-related investments (such as employer shares or securities) are subject to a...
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Microfinance for lawyers: legal, regulatory and transactional overview of products, providers, investments, documentation, Shari'ah compliance, securitisation, governance, technology and global trends
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Practice notes
What is microfinance?
The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) describes ‘microfinance’ as the provision of loans, savings and other basic financial services to the poor. Stakeholders interpret microfinance through their own lenses and thus tend to define it accordingly.
- Governments regard it as social protection.
- Donors emphasise its capacity to achieve poverty reduction.
- Commercial insurers see a pathway to large under-served markets.
- Analysts use it to spotlight the scale of the ‘bottom of the pyramid’.
- Academics consider it a crucial financial service for sustainable economic growth.
These views broadly mirror those for conventional insurance, except for the clearly specified target group: low-income people. Put simply, microfinance is a collection of practices created to widen access to financial services (including loans, savings products, insurance and remittance services) for low-income clients. Typically, these clients are drawn from the poor populations deemed ‘unbankable or uncreditworthy by commercial banks’, for whom traditional sources of finance—lending in particular—are unavailable. Taken together, these perspectives reinforce an understanding of microfinance as finance for people excluded by banks, with approaches tailored to reach low-income communities globally. The delivery of microfinance now encompasses a spectrum of possibilities and a diversity of models. Microfinance models are now also...
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Web page updated on 21/05/2026
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Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
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