Expanding Your Microfinance World View
Posted in Featured Articles on Feb 19th, 2011
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 [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Feb 12th, 2011
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. [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Jan 13th, 2011
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 [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Jan 6th, 2011
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 [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 30th, 2010
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 [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 20th, 2010
20 December 2010 [FAIBlog] If you’re interested in microfinance, but don’t necessarily want to learn about graphs, econometric equations and statistical techniques then you have come to the right place. Kiva and FAI are partnering to bring you “101″ blog posts that explain the core principles of microfinance. This week’s blog is a basic introduction [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 19th, 2010
By Jeanette Okwu 19 December 2010 [CISB] Grameen Bank methodology is almost the reverse of the conventional banking methodology. Conventional banking is based on the principle that the more you have, the more you can get. In other words, if you have little or nothing, you get nothing. As a result, more than half the [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 19th, 2010
By Shariful 19 December 2010 [YunusCentre] Sam Conniff visited Grameen Eye Hospital – which is part of the social business established by Professor Mohammed Yunus. I have learnt that arguing about introducing pay at the point of service charging to the NHS, with yourwine glass fully loaded, with people who sell life saving pharmaceuticals at [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 17th, 2010
By Salah Goss, Associate Program Officer in the Financial Services for the Poor program & Ignacio Mas, Deputy Director in the Financial Services for the Poor program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 17 December 2010 [CGAP] New technology-enabled models for financial inclusion seek to take transactions outside of bank branches and into retail [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 17th, 2010
By Elisabeth Rhyne Managing Director, Center for Financial Inclusion 17 December 2010 [CFIBlog] Microfinance in India is undergoing a crisis caused by a toxic mix of mushrooming growth and political volatility. As they ponder their next steps, participants in the Indian microfinance sector would do well to examine another crisis that touched microfinance, in Bolivia [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 16th, 2010
By Peg Ross, Director of Grameen Foundation’s Human Capital Center 16 December 2010 [CGAP] This post is the next in a special blog series on the microfinance crisis in Andhra Pradesh, India. Over the coming weeks we’ll be featuring a variety of voices on the issues raised by this crisis and what it means for the [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 15th, 2010
By Burcu Güvenek Araslı, Microfinance Expert 15 December 2010 [HurriyatDaily] The crisis exploded in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in early October after tragic casualties from suicides of microcredit users hit the epicenter of microfinance in India. The crisis has since fueled allegations against microfinancers across the country and globally. As events continue to [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 14th, 2010
By Aaron Ausland 14 December 2010 [stayingfortea.org] Microfinance has lost its soul. Six fundamental shifts in the practice of microfinance have left it operating more like a for-profit bank and less like an innovative pro-poor movement. I don’t have much against banks; they mostly do good things for people who can access their services. But, [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 12th, 2010
By Kate Heryford 12 December 2010 [KivaBlog] Kiva and FAI are partnering to bring you a three week educational series on the difference facets of microfinance! The full versions of these articles and the series are available on the FAI website. This week’s blog is a basic introduction to the subject of microsavings. Check out our [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 10th, 2010
By Jude L. Fernando, Author of “Microfinance: perils and prospects“ 10 December 2010 [Forbes] Recent revelations about the role of Nobel Prize winner Muhummad Yunus in the alleged misuse of $100 million by the Grameen Banks (and the cover-up of that misallocation) have begun to provoke overdue discussions on the value of microfinance in the developing world. [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 9th, 2010
By Barbara Kiviat 9 December 2010 [FAI] At FAI, we spend most of our time thinking about financial access overseas. Yet, increasingly, we can’t ignore the conversation happening right here in the U.S. Last year, the FDIC released its first-ever survey of un- and under-banked households, which revealed that some 9 million American families have neither [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Dec 9th, 2010
By Atreya Rayaprolu, Vice President at Intellecap & K Sree Kumar, CEO of Intellecap 9 December 2010 [VCCircle] If the sector tides over the current crisis, in the next few months we could see a Third Wave of Microfinance. How things change. Less than two months ago the Indian Microfinance industry was riding the crest [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Nov 30th, 2010
30 December 2010 [iStockAnalyst] The crisis that’s gripped the microfinance institutions (MFIs) may have wider implications for social for-profit business models. While the government is aiming to establish a framework for the MFI industry, investors are now carefully checking how “social” such ventures really are and whether a promoter is committed enough to differentiate between [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Nov 30th, 2010
By Lindsay Clinton Editor of Beyond Profit & AVP at Intellecap 30 November 2010 [Good.Is] Rumors of the death of microfinance in India have been greatly exaggerated. Here’s what’s really happening. Until recently, microfinance was the darling of poverty alleviation. A foolproof way to pull people out of $2-a-day poverty. But, now, the microfinance sector in India [...]
Posted in Featured Articles on Nov 28th, 2010
By Arvind Ashta Finance Professor & Microfinance Chair at the Burgundy School of Business 28 November 2010 [TheAfricaReport] Amidst a crisis in the Indian microfinance industry, legislators and bankers are asking if an interest rate ceiling in necessary to protect consumers and strengthen the performance of nonviable institutions. There is no global consensus on how [...]
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