2004 Benchmarks: Profitable Growth Continues to Drive Down Costs

MicroBanking Bulletin 2004 benchmarks bring the reader the broadest coverage ever of the performance of microfinance institutions around the world. The following Bulletin Tables present the median financial and operational results for 302 MFIs, covering the spectrum of institutions providing microfinance services in 67 markets around the globe.

This number represents a significant increase over the coverage, up 71 MFIs overall (+30%), from 231 MFIs in 2003 coverage. Coverage grew rapidly in a number of areas. In geographic terms, Latin America continues to lead and nearly doubled, to 97 MFIs from 52 in 2003, reflecting the greater access to quality information available from regulated institutions – and unregulated, alike – across the region. Eastern Europe & Central Asia (60 from 49) and Asia (68 from 57) also showed large increases.

By Charter Type, 2004 saw the most significant increase of coverage of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) & Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs), up 39 and 24 MFIs respectively. By Age, Mature institutions increased in number to 151 (up 55 from 2003), while Young MFIs increased to 111 (up 23); with fewer start-up institutions added to coverage, New MFIs actually fell to 40 from 47 in 2003.

Given this significant expansion to some peer groups’ coverage, users of MBB 12’s Bulletin Tables are urgedto remember these sample changes when looking at prior year results, as these changes likely impact the median values presented. Serious researchers should check the entire set of 2004 benchmark tables posted atwww.mixmbb.org for a complete statistical representation of the 2004 results.

All users should bear in mind that the undoubted value-added of expanding the coverage in the annual Bulletin Tables always comes with some trade-off to continuity of the results and therefore the validity of conclusions one may draw from comparisons with prior periods’ results.

The second edition of the MicroBanking Bulletin Trend Lines, presented in this issue, is intended to address the pressing need to meaningfully track industry performance over time. Up 50% in size from the first publication of Trend Lines, the 91 MFIs that compose the Trend Lines 2001-04 benchmarks offer the microfinance public a unique glimpse into evolving trends in MFI performance around the globe.