4.24.2008 - 08:00am ET

(CSRwire) SAN JOSE, CA - April 24, 2008 - MicroPlace (www.MicroPlace.com), a microfinance investment marketplace for socially responsible investors, today announced that it added investment opportunities in nine new countries for making microfinance investments to the working poor, including Peru, Mexico and South Africa. This brings the total number of countries listed on MicroPlace to 20.

MicroPlace is the only place where socially conscious people can make wise investments that earn a financial return and address global poverty. Investments made through MicroPlace are used to make loans to the world’s working poor.

"MicroPlace is charting a whole new course to end poverty for the one billion of the world’s working poor," said MicroPlace Founder Tracey Turner. "By adding new investment opportunities in every region of the world, we are extending our reach to those billion who can lift themselves from poverty if given the chance."

Private sector microfinance investing is expected to grow from $4.4 billion in 2007 to $20 billion by 2015. Socially motivated individual investors play an increasingly important role in using microfinance to address poverty; driving this growth, in part, are MicroPlace investors, according to a recently released report by the World Bank's CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor). As the world's first socially responsible brokerage specializing in microfinance investments, MicroPlace offers the US investor the unique ability to express their values through their financial investments.

To date, investments made through MicroPlace have generated 20,000 loans to the world's working poor. Because each loan helps an entire family out of poverty, nearly 100,000 people have improved their living conditions because of investments made through MicroPlace.

The new countries where everyday people can make investments include: Brazil, Romania, Poland, Ukraine, South Africa, Paraguay, Mexico, Peru, Kazakhstan. These are added to the countries already on the site, which include India, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Ecuador, Georgia, Ghana, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Nicaragua and Tanzania.

About MicroPlace

MicroPlace (www.microplace.com), launched in 2007, is the world's first socially responsible brokerage specializing in microfinance investments. As an online investment marketplace whose mission it is to alleviate global poverty, MicroPlace is paving the way to enable a billion people to lift themselves out of poverty. MicroPlace is a wholly-owned subsidiary of eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY).

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