Consumption, Commercial or Mortgage Loans: Does it Matter for MFIs in Latin America?

MIX Data Brief 3: Does product composition matter for a microfinance institution's performance? With data on the diverse Latin America microfinance market, this paper explores that very question.

MIX started collecting data on MFI credit types for the Latin America and Caribbean market in fiscal year 2006. This report focuses on the period 2006 - 2008, analyzing credit type data for 322 MFIs with an average of 2.5 years of data per MFI during that time period.

MIX Data Brief 3 includes sections on historical trends and portfolio composition numbers by legal status and country, an analysis of the clustering of MFIs around specific credit type combinations, and a discussion of the main interactions between the changes in the shares of credit products with profitability, portfolio quality, cost structures, size and growth.

This paper is part of a research series called Data Briefs produced by The Microfinance Information Exchange.