The Future Of Microfinance

A major source of financing for the poor and no longer a niche industry Over the past four decades, microfinance—the provision of loans, savings, and insurance to small businesses and entrepreneurs shut out of traditional capital markets—has grown from a niche service in Bangladesh and a few other countries to a significant global source of financing. Some 200 million people globally now receive support from microfinance institutions, with most of the recipients in the developing world. In the beginning, much of the microfinance industry was managed by non-governmental organizations, but today the majority of these institutions are commercial and regulated by governments, and they provide safe places for the poor to save, as well as offering much-needed capital and other financial services. Now out of infancy, the microfinance industry faces major challenges, including its ability to deal with mobile banking and other technology and concerns that some markets are now over-saturated with microfinance. How the industry deals with these and other challenges will determine whether it will continue to grow or will be subsumed within the larger global financial sector. This book is based on the results of a workshop at Lehigh University among thirty-four leaders in the industry. The editors, working with contributions from more than a dozen leading authorities in the field, tell the important story of how microfinance developed, how it has met the needs of hundreds of millions of people, and they address key questions about how it can continue to meet those needs in the future.

. . . a valuable resource that traces the changes in the microfinance sector from its origin until now. . . The book will serve as a good reference point for future debate in these areas. Microfinance Insights In 2006 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Muhammad Yunus for his work on microfinance, dramatically changing attitudes towards capital markets. Suresh Sundaresan has assembled an impressive set of scholars and practitioners in this book to bring together recent practical innovations and policy questions in the realm of microfinance. The contributions emphasize practical solutions to problems facing the field by examining capital markets, providing a framework for thinking about regulation, and raising questions about gender empowerment. They examine recent developments in the field, research findings, and the challenges that lie ahead. This book takes a solid step toward a systematic analysis of the implications of microfinance for the role and regulation of capital markets. The authors address integration of capital markets with microfinance, technological innovations such as the use of mobile phone technology, the consequences of women s access to micro-loan borrowings, and the regulatory challenges and opportunities emerging as the landscape of microfinance dramatically evolves. Practitioners, policy makers, and academics in the fields of developmental economics, finance, gender studies and public and development policy will enjoy this analytically rigorous work.

Microfinance has experienced dynamic development. Today, microfinance providers reach close to 100 million clients worldwide and are growing fast. New partnerships expand the impact of microfinance even further. Three types of partnerships are examined in this book, each consisting of a thematic pillar. Pillar I focuses on equity investments in microfinance, especially the possibilities for engaging private investors through structured microfinance investment funds. Rating agencies are involved in providing more transparency in this emerging fund industry. Pillar II focuses on collaboration among microfinance providers, governments, private investors and technology companies which help microfinance institutions to integrate new technologies into their business models, reducing cost and increasing outreach to clients. Pillar III covers micropensions, microinsurance and the role of securitisation for the future of microfinance.

This book focuses on the achievements, current trends and further potential of microfinance to scale-up and serve many more clients with financial services that enable them to improve their living conditions. The book asks what it takes to achieve sustainable impact: to know your clients and to understand their needs, to treat them in a fair and transparent way, and to safeguard the synthesis between the financial and social dimension of sustainable microfinance. The book also sheds light on the future funding landscape and what is necessary to bring more commercial funders on board while ensuring that these new funders will continue the commitment to responsible finance. While being forward looking, the book reflects the debate on core values of microfinance, triggered by recent criticisms of an approach that was hailed as a panacea in the beginning and which had proved over time as one of the most effective models of development finance. These criticisms emerged over signs of overheating in some markets, particularly the 2010 events in Andhra Pradesh, and turned into an assumption of a worldwide microfinance crisis, putting seriously at stake the good reputation microfinance had enjoyed so far.

??? ... Microfinance is the method whereby financial services and credit is made available to the economically active but low income people of developiong countries. This book focusses on three key aspects of the phenomenon: 1) the shift from government- and donor-subsidized credit delivery systems to self-sufficient, sustainable microfinance institutions; 2) the results on the ground, on the way in which microfinance is helps people expand and diversify their enterprises, increase their incomes, raise their living standards and those of theri families, and boost their self-confidence; 3) the theroretical frameworks that had previously impeded the microfinance revolution, with suggestions for their improvement.

This compilation comprises 14 articles on the major developments in microfinance in recent years. Some show how certain aspects of the field have changed quite dramatically, others cover issues which have continued throughout the period to preoccupy practitioners and policy makers, and others raise critical and worrying concerns about the future of microfinance. All have been written by experienced authorities, with practical experience, and several are widely regarded as seminal contributions. The reader should be useful for students and others who are looking for a wide-ranging introduction to microfinance, for national and international policy makers and donors, and for people who work in the field and are looking for a broad overview of trends and alternative strategies.

An accessible analysis of the global expansion of financial markets in poor communities, incorporating the latest thinking and evidence. The microfinance revolution has allowed more than 150 million poor people around the world to receive small loans without collateral, build up assets, and buy insurance. The idea that providing access to reliable and affordable financial services can have powerful economic and social effects has captured the imagination of policymakers, activists, bankers, and researchers around the world; the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize went to microfinance pioneer Muhammed Yunis and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. This book offers an accessible and engaging analysis of the global expansion of financial markets in poor communities. It introduces readers to the key ideas driving microfinance, integrating theory with empirical data and addressing a range of issues, including savings and insurance, the role of women, impact measurement, and management incentives. This second edition has been updated throughout to reflect the latest data. A new chapter on commercialization describes the rapid growth in investment in microfinance institutions and the tensions inherent in the efforts to meet both social and financial objectives. The chapters on credit contracts, savings and insurance, and gender have been expanded substantially; a new section in the chapter on impact measurement describes the growing importance of randomized controlled trials; and the chapter on managing microfinance offers a new perspective on governance issues in transforming institutions. Appendixes and problem sets cover technical material.