I really need to learn more financial terms in Spanish

So I'm sitting at my desk (a shared desk) on my second day of work, and I finally understand what I need to be doing. Trying to listen to interpret everything in a foreign language is difficult enough, but trying to understand the financial lingo is even harder!

Anyhow, me and the other intern (from Cuenca, Ecuador... Tricia will be excited) are working on a project to analyze the regiment for distributing loans. We will  be analyzing the current manner in which CADEPIA distributes loans, how other micro-credit institutions do it, and how we can lower "la mora", or the default rate. Unlike most micro-credit institutions, CADEPIA has recently required that its lenders provide guarantees in case they default, such as machinery or a car. They want us to determine whether this new guarantee has lowered the default rate or not.

Although I don't necessarily agree with the concept of "guarantees" since it goes against almost everything micro-finance stands for (poor people simply cannot provide guarantees), CADEPIA isn't really only providing micro loans. For example, Pro Mujer (a really famous micro-credit institution throughout South America) has a default rate of just 1%, but they only give out loans between $50 and $1500 and you must also have a group together of between 10 and 25 people. On the other hand, CADEPIA's loans are a bit larger (between $300 and $4500) and they lend to both individuals and groups. Therefore, it isn't quite the same as a typical micro-credit institution, yet it also isn't quite like a bank which lends even greater amounts.

As I understand and learn more, I'll post it in the blog. But for now... here is a picture of my really cute dog, Sampson!