International Finance and Securities Law Expert Peter Epp Joins FINCA International's Board of Directors

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- FINCA International, a Washington D.C.-based, nonprofit, pioneer of microfinance services and social enterprise, is pleased to welcome Peter Epp, Executive Vice President & General Counsel of Financeit, to its board of directors.

FINCA is the creator of a microfinance network that serves low-income entrepreneurs in 23 countries with savings, group loans, mobile banking, remote agent banking, biometric identification, and other innovative services. FINCA is also providing solar lighting and clean cook-stoves in Uganda, and plans are underway to increase people's access to water/sanitation/hygiene solutions, education, health products, agricultural value chain improvements, and more, through a new social enterprise accelerator program.   

Mr. Epp is a recognized expert in international finance and securities law and has worked in many of the jurisdictions in which FINCA operates. In 2015, he joined Toronto-based Financeit, a leading financial technology (or "fintech") company that partners with multiple lending institutions to provide a cloud-based platform for secure, point-of-sale lending to consumers from any web-enabled device, while offering instant online credit decisions as well as paperless in-field loan origination through to end-of-loan lifecycle servicing. Prior to that, he lived and worked in several countries, including as a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business. He is a former Partner at New York-based law firm White & Case LLP and London-based law firm Herbert Smith Freehills LLP. He also spent one year as a Counsel at the World Bank.

"FINCA is dedicated to financial inclusion, strengthening local communities, and creating opportunity for people who are excluded from the upside of global economic growth," said Rupert Scofield, President of FINCA International. "Peter's business acumen, his deep expertise in emerging markets transactions and, not least, his love of Africa where we do much of our work, will make him a valuable addition to our board."   

Mr. Epp said: "For 30+ years FINCA has empowered women and men to build small businesses and work for a better future. Today, the vision is to create a global network of sustainable and scalable social enterprises that deliver effective goods and services – both financial and non-financial – to fight poverty in a more holistic way. I love this vision and I am excited to join the effort."

Mr. Epp is qualified to practise law in New York, as well as in Canada and the UK, where FINCA has charitable partners. He received his BA degree from his hometown University of Manitoba, in Canada, his JD law degree from the University of British Columbia (including study at the University of Minnesota law school), and his LLM law degree from the London School of Economics.

About FINCA

FINCA International's mission is to alleviate poverty through lasting solutions that help people build assets, create jobs and raise their standard of living. For more information, please visit www.FINCA.org or follow us at http://twitter.com/finca.

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