Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered is on track to lend $500 million to microlenders, or banks for the poor, helping an industry hit by funding problems as a result of the financial crisis.

"We are on target," Finance Director Richard Meddings said about the bank's pledge, made in September 2006, to lend the sum over five years.

A majority of microfinance institutions said they had faced liquidity constraints over the previous six months in a March survey by by microfinance industry body the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor.

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