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Managing Risks in Microfinance

By Gaurav Kumar, IFMR Capital 19 February 2011 [IFMRBlog] Microfinance institutions (MFIs) essentially act as financial intermediaries, bridging the gap between mainstream financial institutions and low-income households for a specific type of credit need that is short-term and unsecured. The concept of risk lies at the heart of any such financial intermediation. Systematic Risks Systematic risks that face the entire sector, such as rainfall failure, impact the livelihoods of a large numbers of clients simultaneously and cannot be eliminated, but can be mitigated by purchasing insurance at a portfolio level, or diversifying across regions. However, a significant systematic risk that has emerged in ...

Revisiting Prof. Yunus’ Speech of Nobel Peace Prize 2006

Many of us know about Microfinance per se, about Prof. Yunus, the man who started and led the revolution called Microfinance. We also know that he received Nobel peace prize for the year 2006, but how many of us know what his words were when he walked across the coveted hall of fame in Oslo. This is not just an attempt to raise awareness regarding Microfinance but also an attempt to update us of what transpired in Bangladesh once and became a worldwide phenomena. So let’s begin by understanding and internalizing what Prof. Yunus said in his speech at the ...

The Rationale of Considering Microfinance Plus Programs

13 January 2011 [AmericanConferenceBlog] This article was contributed to American Conference Institute by Bertrand Moulin. Mr. Moulin is an investment funds professional, consultant and Research fellow (PhD candidate) at the Centre for European Research in Microfinance , University of Mons (UMONS), Belgium. World Bank sources indicate that more than 1 billion people live on less than a dollar a day worldwide The Human Development Report 2003 states that out of 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the world, 39 million live in developing countries. The link between poverty and poor health is evident. Indeed this sentence of Ohri (undated) points out that ...

Is Microfinance Research as Bad as Medical Research?

By Jonathan Morduch 6 January 2011 [CGAP] Rich Rosenberg blogged yesterday about an Atlantic article that profiled John Ioannidis’s critique of medical research. The article reminded me of a meeting held in Washington a few years ago. Consumers and producers of microfinance impact studies were brought together to discuss the research agenda. One participant, who is not a researcher, concluded dolefully that microfinance research lags far behind medical research. My immediate thought was that that claim was probably false: not because microfinance research is so far ahead, but because much medical research seems full of problems. If you read beyond the newspaper ...

Micro finance: A 5 point call for change

By Bindu Ananth and Nachiket Mor 30 December 2010 [IFMR] We have maintained a consistent position that despite all the imperfections of the MFI industry, the AP crisis was brought on primarily by the Ordinance that restricted the ability of MFIs to collect on the loans they had made and the misplaced perception of key stakeholders that this is an unregulated industry, despite 80% of the loans being made by RBI regulated NBFCs. It was (and still is) imperative to remain completely focussed on solving the immediate issues of liquidity and prevention of contagion to other states so that the collateral damage ...

About

Jun 15th, 2010 by Microfinance Horizon

Inception

The idea of starting Microfinance Horizon is deeply rooted to the fact that Microfinance Industry is not an exception to the concept of information asymmetry. This has led to development of Microfinance ethos, culture, values and above all a strong knowledge base, but in pockets of seclusion and hence lacking the coverage and inputs from other stakeholders in a globalized society. We believe that this gap needs to be bridged and media esp. online media will play an increasingly important role in furthering this cause.

Platform

We are a not-for profit alliance of like minded individuals and organizations ranging from diverse backgrounds, who contribute to the development of this industry by sharing their knowledge base, experiences, views etc thereby creating a documented knowledge-base. Through this platform new development, initiatives, innovations in the area of Microfinance will be shared, analyzed, and discussed. In the long run this will also help in shaping the decision-making process of policy makers, regulatory bodies, governments, national/international development agencies and the general public.

Vision Statement

To bridge the information asymmetry by channelizing free flow of knowledge and information amongst various stake holders of Microfinance industry.

Mission Statement

To aid in analyzing, documenting and spreading the shared knowledge to various stake holders of Microfinance industry by voluntary contribution from researchers, students, practitioners, like-minded organizations and general public.

Value System

We believe in rigorous analysis backed by thorough understanding of the core Microfinance issues and succinct presentation of the shared knowledge base. There will not be any barrier to anyone who wants to learn, share, grow and eventually help the industry benefit from it.

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