Recent Blogs
Can Data and Transparency Strengthen Microfinance?
We have come to expect that consistent, reliable data strengthens microfinance performance and policy dialog.
Microcredit Deserves Support, not Suppression
Owing to its innovative program design and practices, microcredit reaches many poor people who lack access to formal finance. This is clearly a major gain that protects the poor and other disadvantaged groups from resorting to informal loans at extortionate rates.
Two Cautionary Tales from Bangladesh
For leaders who devised Bangladeshi’s microfinance miracle in the first place, adjusting staff instructions and realigning incentives to remove these foolish practices should be a piece of cake.
Over-indebtedness: A Practitioner’s Perspective
The large MFIs seem to be revising down their growth targets, there are ongoing experiments with new products and there is some hope that a microcredit bureau, at least on a limited scale, will see the light of day within a year or so.
Getting Beyond Payments
Most branchless banking services help clients move money over distance : a money transfer to a family member in the countryside, a bill payment to the utility company, a social benefit from the government.
Branchless Banking 2010: What Price?
Is branchless banking cheaper than traditional banking, and by how much?
Branchless Banking 2010: Is the Hype Justified?
After several years of very high profile attention on mobile money and other branchless banking schemes, we think it’s time to test the hype. Or more accurately, we’ve wanted to for awhile.
What's the Impact of Loan Size in Microfinance?
People tend to see loan size as a rough proxy of client poverty, which appears to be more or less true as long as you say the word “rough” very emphatically.