Property laws in Latin America (MF securitization proposals)
Rinne, April
Jami, many thanks for the kind introduction and getting the word out
there in regards to my query. I would welcome an opportunity to liaise
with you all and look forward to the MF lawyers google group taking
greater hold moving forward.
In short, we have been approached (on more than one occasion) about the
possibility of structuring and drafting documentation for the
securitization of housing loans [mortgages] in various countries in
Latin [Central/South] America. This potentially could be a huge market
and greatly expand the scope of microfinance products and services
available in these regions. However, ultimately the feasibility of any
such proposal rests upon the quality, clarity, legality, validity and
(above all) enforceability of property rights in the jurisdictions in
which such mortgages are taken out (see eg, Hernando de Soto). As I and
my colleagues have no expertise, and are not qualified to practice, in
Latin American jurisdictions, we would like very much to find out how
property rights, and property laws, exist and are enforced there, in
order to determine whether structured finance transactions along the
lines of those that have been proposed to us are likely to be possible
anytime in the near future.
Therefore, if any of you has information or expertise with respect to
property laws in Latin American countries (all countries are of interest
at this point), I would be grateful to hear from you. My hope is that,
with the help of organizations like IDLO and collective efforts, we
could develop an aggregate "comparison chart" of this information which
would be of benefit to all.
I look forward to receiving any replies, suggestions and/or other
feedback, and wish you all the best with your respective microfinance
initiatives.
Kind regards,
April
PS - Apologies in advance for not translating this into Spanish - I can
do so, but the message would then be even longer. Hopefully English
will suffice for present purposes.
April K. Rinne
O'Melveny & Myers LLP
Embarcadero Center West
275 Battery Street, Suite 2600
San Francisco, CA 94111-3305
Tel. (415)984-8718
Fax (415)984-8701
ari...@omm.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: Jami Hubbard [mailto:Jhub...@idlo.int]
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 3:01 AM
To: Rinne, April; IBT38E; TW349E; Simone Di Castri
Cc: microfina...@googlegroups.com; Pilar Faci del Campo; virginia
valdez
Subject: Introductions within the microfinance community
Hello, it is me again! This time I would like to introduce April Rinne,
an American lawyer, formerly of Women's World Banking who now works for
O'Melveny & Myers, based in San Francisco and who does pro bono work for
the microfinance community at large, primarily creating innovative deal
structures to increase access to capital for MFI's.
April and her firm are helping IDLO to develop relevant course materials
on these financial themes for the upcoming Beijing training, and her
ideas and industry contacts could be quite beneficial to you all,
wherever you may be. Thus, I thought I would introduce you all via
email.
Also, April would like some input from our South American lawyers out
there, who are present primarily on the Microfinancelawyers listserv.
She would like to know if property rights and the lack of title to land
is adversely affecting the expansion of microfinance activities in your
countries. So, if you are from Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala (hi
Osvaldo!), Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, we would love to hear from
you on this issue.
Maybe my very kind colleague Pilar or some other kind soul would do me
the favor of translating my question into Spanish?
Thanks in advance for your input, and happy information sharing!
Saludos!
Jami