Searching: Research & Analysis

Gender-Intentional Credit Scoring

Evidence shows women often demonstrate higher loan repayment rates than men, suggesting they are lower-risk borrowers yet face higher barriers to loan approval. This guide introduces a gender-lens analytical framework for lenders to determine whether lending decisions and outcomes in their portfolios differ by gender and, if so, how.

Building Value in Microfinance Through Digitization: Lessons from Loan Automation Pilots

Digitization has brought both hope and frustration to the microfinance industry. To address this, we identified and tested five core principles for successful implementation. This focus note summarizes our experience, evaluates the validity of the five principles, and offers key lessons learned for other industry stakeholders to adopt and scale a similar approach.

Building Value in Microfinance Through Digitization: A Role for Funders

This note highlights the importance of funders in supporting the digital transformation of microfinance institutions (MFIs). The focus is on business intelligence and credit renewal automation to increase the success rate of MFI digitization. Funders play a crucial role in ensuring that MFIs continue to serve the most excluded and underserved customers in the future.

Digitization in Microfinance: Case Studies of Pathways to Success

This Working Paper takes a unique look at microfinance institution innovation with digital technologies by featuring case studies on five MFIs that successfully created measurable customer and business value through digitization:

Microfinance Solvency and COVID-19: A Call for Coordination

This COVID-19 Briefing looks specifically at how to address the solvency risks facing medium and small microfinance providers, which often reach into communities and geographic areas that are not served by larger lenders.

Snapshots: MFIs During the COVID-19 Crisis

CGAP and Symbiotics analyze COVID-19's impact on the performance of the more than 300 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Symbiotics global portfolio, in this series of brief papers published between November 2020 and July 2021.

Crisis Roadmap for Microfinance Institutions: COVID-19 and Beyond

This practical guide describes steps that microfinance institutions can take to navigate the COVID-19 health pandemic and prepare for future crises.

Debt Restructuring in Microfinance

Based on workshops with nearly 300 participants from 30 countries, this COVID-19 Briefing contains insights for creditors and debtors on ways to effectively manage debt restructuring talks, brought on by the COVID-19 crisis.

Results Dashboard: CGAP Pulse Survey of Microfinance Institutions

The interactive dashboard is no longer available. For more information on the CGAP Pulse Survey of Microfinance Institutions that launched in June 2020 and concluded in December 2020, please visit the following pages:

Microfinance and COVID-19: A Framework for Regulatory Response

A framework for identifying and assessing crisis responses must take account of the special characteristics of microfinance which leads to the question of how regulators should respond. A review of current practice in a range of countries suggests there are six key steps to be taken at the level of regulation and policy.