Comments for Microfinance Horizon

Comment on Grameen’s Yunus in Cash Scandal by Mr. Indrajit

Mr. Indrajit — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:27:59 +0000

We need to respect the law. According to Bangladeshi charter, Dr. Yunus suppose to go to retirement when he was 60. But he didn’t do that. There is no point to say that Dr.Yunus should be Managing Director forever.
I don’t want to discuss about another issues. He is very intelligent person who got the Novel prize. There is no doubt that he has done lot of things for microcredit.

But is it means that he will not follow the law?

Comment on Cheap Credit and Incentives in Financial Institutions: The Case of Global Microfinance by Subprime on the Subcontinent: What Can We Learn from the Microcredit Crisis? » New Deal 2.0

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:50:07 +0000

[...] and helped usher in extraordinary industry growth. Today, $65 billion in microcredit loans are made to 90 million borrowers [...]

Comment on Is Grameen Bank Different From Conventional Banks? by Zahid

Zahid — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 10:47:52 +0000

Grameen bank is islamic bank except the concept of interest. But for the commercial minded people idea of islamic banking is commercially not viable. Every thing can not be seen from commercial point of view. Needs of the needy people should be looked after by the privileged.

Comment on Heterogeneous Credit Impacts of Healthcare Spending of the Poor in Peri-urban Areas, Vietnam: Quantile Treatment Effects Estimation by Jessica Pickett

Jessica Pickett — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:33:00 +0000

I suspect that access to credit would indeed raise health utilization among the poor and help smooth non-medical consumption. However, it is quite likely that households with outstanding loans are much sicker, which is precisely why they borrow in the first place. The authors should address this source of endogeneity in their survey design, perhaps by looking at overall community lending rates or bank proximity as a proxy for access to credit rather than existing household loan data; or at the very least, they should control for the incidence and severity of illness.

Comment on Grameen’s Yunus in Cash Scandal by Mukul

Mukul — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:36:05 +0000

DR. Ehunos face To Political Propaganda By Bangladesh AWME LEAGUE , This is The Term To Make affront To ( DR. Ehunos ) Many Of Previous Tried Vain , DR. Ehunos Supports The Poor , And Poor Peoples Like Him Huge Number in The Rural Area in Country Wide Bangladesh , ( Six And Seven ) Bangladesh Politicians Doesn’t Like Him True , Because , ( DR. Eunos ) Tried to Once Make A New Way Political Party in Bangladesh For Public Well fare , And he ‘s Nobility , People Supports Him Huge in Rural Area , The Only Big Excuse To he is Pace To Black Eye Of Politicians AWME LEAGUE Jealous .
The GrammenBank Only one Bank To Supports obviously Poor Peoples And Other of Banks So Corrupted enormous , AWME LEAGUE endeavor to Setup Their own Individual into The GrammenBank Management , And Make into The Bank And Their own Political dwelling , The publicly Shown Bangladesh Bank Does Action About ( DR. Ehunos ) its Behinds Hand of AWME LEAGUE Administration ( This is My Opinion )

Comment on The Rationale of Considering Microfinance Plus Programs by Nita

Nita — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:56:56 +0000

Fascinating. I completely agree with your assessment that services beyond simple credit and other financial services are crucial to help the global poor sustainably lift themselves out of poverty.

However, do you believe that these other services (insurance, healthcare, education, business training) should be provided as a whole by ONE entity, or do you believe that the most effective and efficient way of providing these services is through partnerships and MoUs between several specialized organizations and companies?

Comment on Is Microfinance Research as Bad as Medical Research? by Brady Josephson

Brady Josephson — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:50:29 +0000

Good post. Like the insights and building off of Rosenberg’s post. As someone who works for a nonprofit doing microfinance but not involved on the technical side of things, I rely heavily on the reports that are created about the validity and impact that microfinance can have. It’s reassuring that we are not as “bad” as the medical testing environment but agree more needs to be done. As we are focused on poverty alleviation and life change, I’d love to see more tests and analysis that finds a way to quantify those two outcomes. Thanks!

Comment on Can Combining Credit with Insurance or Savings Enhance the Sustainability of MFIs? by Nita

Nita — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:29:44 +0000

I believe that the answer to the title question above is YES – Not only would providing products other than credit enhance the sustainability of MFIs, but it would also be incredibly beneficial for MFI borrowers, the alleged target population of Microfinance schemes.
And I also strongly believe that MFIs must provide Savings AND Insurance in addition to Credit to make MFIs as sustainable and as efficient and effective as possible.

Comment on Do Multiple Financial Services Enhance the Poverty Outreach of Microfinance Institutions? by Nita

Nita — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:55:07 +0000

I completely agree with the comment that “poor people need a wide array of flexible financial services. A demand driven approach will encourage portfolio diversity by offering the poor savings, insurance and cash transfer services in addition to various loan products’ (CGAP, 2003).”

I work in microinsurance and our biggest obstacle to date has been explaining the importance and relevance of insurance in poverty alleviation. We are faced with skepticism not only from the poor clients we hope to reach but also from individuals in the US and other developed countries – a common argument from those who do not see microinsurance’s utility is, ” they cannot even afford to live life today – so how can you expect them to put money into something for tomorrow that may or may not occur?”

Well intentioned though this view may be, it is in my opinion narrow and short-sighted. Rather, I agree with the article’s conclusion that “this research observes that MFIs can help client households reducing their financial vulnerability through product diversification.”

Thank you for this article.

Comment on Profits & Perverse Incentives: The New Face of Microfinance by Rajan Alexander

Rajan Alexander — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:07:39 +0000

CASTRATE THE FOR-PROFIT MFIS TO RECAST THE SECTOR!

The die has been cast with the introduction of the Andhra Pradesh Micro-Finance Regulatory Bill in the State Assembly yesterday. The Bill to replace the ordinance passed by the government in October 15th is scheduled to be discussed this coming Tuesday and passed as an Act by Wednesday, tightening the noose around MFIs.

So where is the future policy environment going?