People
BFA has formed an association with the Centre for Financial Sector Regulation and Inclusion (Cenfri) for policy-related consulting.
Cenfri is a non-profit thinktank based in Johannesburg South Africa which operate in close collaboration with universities in the African region. Cenfri's mission is to support financial sector development and finanical inclusion through facilitating better regulation and market provision of financial services. Cenfri does this by conducting research, providing advice and developing capacity building programmes for regulators, market players and other parties operating in the low-income market.
http://www.cenfri.org/
DAVID
PORTEOUS
Abridged Curriculum Vitae
David Porteous is the founder and director of Bankable Frontier Associates, a niche consulting firm based in Boston, Massachusetts USA. He has undertaken consultancy assignments in the areas of financial strategy and policy for a wide range of clients including public clients such as DFID, the World Bank, CGAP and private clients including a banking group and telco group. Prior to relocating to Boston in 2004, he was active in executive leadership roles in the development finance sector of South Africa with private and public financial institutions as well as FinMark Trust, an NGO involved in promoting financial inclusion policies and projects, and a public-private partnership which sought to promote low income housing securitization. He has written several books including Banking on Change, a book which chronicles and analyses changes in the retail financial sector of South Africa in the decade since democracy. He also writes a regular weblog, The Bankable Frontier (http://www.bankablefrontier.com /weblog/index.html), which tracks the development of inclusive financial sectors around the world. David has a B.Comm (UCT), M.Phil (Cambridge) and Ph.D (economics) (Yale). He is married to Rebecca and has two sons. Download short CV  Download full CV
 JAMES HOKANS
Abridged Curriculum Vitae
James Hokans has over 20 years of international development experience managing housing, economic development and urban management programs primarily in Eastern, West and Southern Africa. He has also worked in Pakistan and Indonesia and several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. As a resident chief technical advisor, he worked for seven years in South Africa and was instrumental in establishing a national wholesale finance facility investing in micro-finance institutions in that country. Previously, he served as a policy advisor to the first minister of housing and local government in post-independence Namibia, and Mr. Hokans helped establish the Ford Foundation’s first Urban Poverty Program in Eastern and Southern Africa that invested in some of the first micro-finance institutions of that region. James Hokans received his M.Sc. in Economics and Public Policy from the London School of Economics (LSE) and his B.A. in history from Dartmouth College. He also holds a certificate in Project Management from the Business School at the University of Cape Town. Download full CV
 JOHANN BEZUIDENHOUDT
Abridged Curriculum Vitae
Johann Bezuidenhoudt is an Associate of BFA and has substantial experience in consulting internationally in strategies and technology deployment in financial services. He has training in economics and engineering. He has worked in the private sector in an electricity utility, the mobile telecommunications industry, consulting and banking. He has led projects in establishing mobile banking operations, electricity and airtime pre-paid sales and mobile value added services. He has published papers on pre-payment and security and speaks at conferences on mobile banking and payments. He has also sat on the board of Radicchio (now part of Liberty Alliance) and has a wide international network among m-banking providers, mobile operators and telecommunication and security technology suppliers.
 JOHN RATICHEK
Abridged Curriculum Vitae
John Ratichek has joined BFA to manage projects and facilitate the
development of BFA's consulting practice and its organization. He has
recent experience in micro-enterprise development in Vietnam and
Nepal. Based on 10 years of partnership with agencies in Nepal, he is
leading a small INGO for educational, healthcare and business
development in that country. His management background includes 10
years in manufacturing industry and 24 years in a religious
non-profit.
John graduated with a BA in religion and economics from Amherst
College (USA) and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
He and his wife, Ellen have four grown sons.
 JEFF ABRAMS
Abridged Curriculum Vitae
Jeff Abrams is an associate at BFA, having joined the firm in January 2008. He is a licensed attorney and his work at BFA focuses on three areas: (i) the regulatory environment for savings and payment transactions in developing countries; (ii) the enabling environment for housing finance in developing countries; and (iii) desk-top interrogation, using specialized software, of financial access survey data as a means of informing market-driven efforts to extend the “bankable frontier”.
Recently, on behalf of an international housing investment fund seeking to make substantial wholesale loans for low-income housing finance, Jeff performed detailed legal analysis across several LAC countries, with particular focus on creditors’ rights laws and structured finance mechanisms. Separately, in an effort to explore innovations for delivering housing finance to the poor in developing countries, he wrote a paper on the crossroads of real estate law and group-lending micro-credit methodologies.
Jeff graduated from the Massachusetts School of Law, magna cum laude, as valedictorian, with a major in real estate law. He obtained his B.A. from Vanderbilt University, magna cum laude, with a degree in business administration and philosophy. Prior to becoming an attorney and joining BFA, he founded and ran a small business in the recreation industry, and separately did consulting work in that same field.
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