Three NGOs Allege Dutch Investor Ignored Own Evidence of Microfinance Abuse

Three human rights organizations have filed a complaint against a Netherlands-based microfinance investor on the grounds that it violated international responsible business standards and for years ignored its own evidence of harms linked to predatory lending practices.

Cambodian NGOs Licadho and Equitable Cambodia and international rights group FIAN Germany lodged a 28-page complaint to a Dutch body that oversees and promotes the OECD guidelines — which are standards for multinational businesses — accusing Oikocredit of expanding its practices within Cambodia even as it internally acknowledged the myriad abuses linked to the industry. For months, Oikocredit has also refused to meet with the groups filing the complaint, they wrote.

The complaint, filed to the Dutch National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct, calls on the investor to provide compensation to borrowers, make public and explain details of their due diligence and monitoring of Cambodian partners such as Prasac, LOLC and Amret, and suspend investments until land titles taken as collateral are returned to their owners, among other requests.

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