14 results
- Jul, 2011In a post on the FAI blog, Timothy Ogden asked whether the standard microcredit model depends on growth. Since growth has been a central focus following several recent crises, this is a very worthwhile question. Here, we will look a little bit at what...
- May, 2011How can we define responsible financial performance? This is part three of a four-part series covering our current state of knowledge about the relationship between key financial and social performance indicators, produced as a prelude to the...
- May, 2011How can we define responsible financial performance? This is part two of a four-part series covering our current state of knowledge about the relationship between key financial and social performance indicators, produced as a prelude to the...
- Apr, 2011In a comment to our post on cost and profitability in microfinance, John DeWit from SEF – ZAF raised the point that some MFIs may “charge high rates but...not make high returns because of large loan write-offs.”This presents a perfect opportunity to look...
- Apr, 2011In the past week, both David Roodman and MFTransparency have posted on the relationship between yields and APRs for microfinance institutions. We are happy to see the dialogue deepen on what we really know about what MFIs charge their clients. Both posts...
- Mar, 2011Recent commentary on microfinance has focused on the idea that there is a big problem with excess commercialization driven by greedy for-profit microcredit lenders. Perceptions of uncontrolled growth and excessive interest charged to vulnerable low...
- Jan, 2011In a recent New York Times opinion piece, Muhammad Yunus proposed government regulation to enforce an interest rate cap of 10 - 15 percentage points over cost of funds for microfinance institutions. The intention of this cap is to prevent profit-...
- Jan, 2011The following figures are updated versions of those published in “Analyzing Microcredit Interest Rates, A Review of the Methodology Proposed by Mohamed Yunus”, MIX Data Brief, No. 4.All updated figures below are almost identical to the ones...
- Aug 4, 2010MIX Data Brief No. 7: The microfinance industry has long speculated about potential trade-offs between financial and social goals. While struggling to achieve rapid growth, serve more clients, improve portfolio quality, and become financially sustainable...
- Dec 1, 2009As the world watched the financial crisis and ensuing economic slowdown unfold in developed economies in late 2008, observers of microfinance braced themselves for the fallout on microfinance institutions, some of which began to appear by the end of 2008...
- May 1, 2009Approximately 1 billion people — or nearly one-sixth of the world’s population — subsist on less than USD 1 per day. Of this population, 162 million survive on less than USD 0.50 per day. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute,...
- Sep 1, 2007Microfinance is a high touch, high cost business. As a business model, its greatest challenge is to lower operating costs in order to reduce the cost of service borne by borrowers. An analysis of the cost structure of profitable MFIs (microfinance...
- Sep 1, 2007MIX’s 2006 benchmarking results show another hallmark year of growth for microfinance. MFIs expanded outreach at a continued, measured pace, while commercial borrowings to MFIs grew nearly twice as fast, at over 60 percent. Yet, despite growth and...
- May 1, 2007The significant rise of the microfinance industry over the past 30 years has produced an ever-increasing number of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the developing world. Over the past ten years the industry has been supported largely by development...
