February 6, 2012
January 31, 2012
January 9, 2012
January 6, 2012
July 30, 2010
The SKS IPO: The microfinance industry holds its breath
India’s SKS went public yesterday, and we’re all waiting to see what will happen. Initial public offerings (IPOs) have a rather infamous history in the microfinance industry. The Banco Compartamos IPO set off a flurry of controversy, and ended up casting a lasting pall over the industry.
Themes:
Commercialization & Subsidy
July 29, 2010
What is microcredit?
Billions of poor households around the world lack access to basic financial services. New ideas about banks can translate into workable financial institutions that serve the poor around the world.
Themes:
Credit
July 26, 2010
Who’s laughing at Muhammad Yunus?
More like laughing with Dr. Yunus, actually. When he appears on an episode of The Simpsons this fall. Sure, winning the Nobel Peace Prize was nice and all, but this star turn surely means Muhammad Yunus has finally hit the big time. Get your popcorn ready.
July 23, 2010
Event recap: Microfinance impact studies – necessary but not sufficient?
For those of you who couldn’t attend Wednesday’s event, “Microfinance's Social Impact: Cutting through the Hype,” sponsored by the Microfinance Club of New York and hosted by FAI, here’s a recap.
Themes:
Research Methodology
July 22, 2010
October event: Help create the next generation of microfinance innovation and research!
It’s time to usher in the next generation of access to finance. Last year, the results of the most rigorous impact studies of microfinance to date (the first ever randomized control trials) upset not a little conventional wisdom about the effect of microfinance on poverty, and what clients want and need.
Themes:
Big Picture
July 20, 2010
Savings without interest and free loans? More innovations from SafeSave
In a previous post, I wrote about my visit to SafeSave in Dhaka. SafeSave also has a cousin organization, called Shohoz Shonchoy (“Easy Savings,” in Bangla), that operates in rural Bangladesh. Shohoz Shonchoy employs the same flexible methodology as SafeSave, with collectors visiting clients every day to allow clients to make financial transactions from their homes or workplaces. Shohoz Shonchoy has been providing a fascinating product since 2007.
Themes:
Savings
July 15, 2010
IMF launches new financial access database – Hooray!
Without data, we have nothing. OK, maybe not nothing, but all talk of increasing access to finance, the lack of access to finance, the importance of access to finance is really pretty meaningless without numbers. Luckily, hard data on financial access is finally being collected – and made available to the public.
July 15, 2010
Report from the field: SafeSave, a different kind of microfinance methodology
Last week I had the pleasure to visit SafeSave, an unconventional microfinance institution operating in Dhaka, Bangladesh. SafeSave was founded by Stuart Rutherford (among other things, author of The Poor and Their Money and co-author of Portfolios of the Poor) and puts a very interesting twist on the traditional model of credit-led microfinance institutions.
Themes:
Savings
July 13, 2010
Customers not interested in your financial services? New FAI paper looks at implications of take-up rates
In microfinance, the issues that get the most play tend to be the ones most closely related to bottom lines: What are the net impacts on households? How do institutions achieve sustainability? Which mechanisms work, and why? But sometimes, in our pursuit of headline results, we skip over quieter details that tell us something important. Take-up rates often fit this description.
Themes:
Product Design
July 12, 2010
Role of consumer education and technology in microinsurance
When CARE India field officers delivered emergency relief services to the coastal regions ravaged by the 2004 tsunami, they were struck by the communities’ vulnerability to shocks and lack of access to appropriate risk protection tools, and assessed that microinsurance could be an effective product for these communities.
Themes:
Behavioral Economics, Insurance, Technology Adoption, Training
July 9, 2010
A new FAI paper asks: So how exactly do we regulate microfinance?
That is indeed the question when regulators so often find themselves playing catch up – trying to figure out if and how something that’s already happening should be supervised. When it comes to prudential regulation – or, safeguarding deposits – the stakes are particularly high.
July 8, 2010
Event Alert! Microfinance's Social Impact: Cutting through the Hype
You’ve been reading about the controversy. Now come it hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.
Themes:
Commercialization & Subsidy
July 6, 2010
Microinsurance TV
Sometimes it’s helpful to simply watch and listen. Microsave has been putting together a series of video podcasts that are worth a look. Their big advantage comes from being relatively unedited, giving the subjects time to develop ideas. (Of course if you’re not an academic relaxing on summer break, the fact that they’re not edited might also be their big disadvantage.)
Themes:
Insurance
July 2, 2010
Job creation and economic growth: The trouble with micro?
The premise of microfinance is that very small loans can make a big difference. The argument is that getting capital to cash-starved “micro-entrepreneurs” will go farther than getting capital to cash-starved small business owners. The premise is plausible, but the opposite is also plausible. Rather than going micro, bigger businesses may be able to generate better jobs and do so more efficiently. Those bigger businesses may be able to generate bigger impacts directly via job creation and indirectly through regional economic growth.
July 1, 2010
New Grameen Foundation survey: Learning to love impact evaluations?
In 2009, the results from the first randomized control trials in microfinance were released – and they’ve been stirring up controversy ever since. The studies’ failure to find a strong causal link between financial access for the poor and poverty reduction spawned a particularly heated debate between microfinance practitioners and advocates versus researchers.
Themes:
Research Methodology