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Microfinance is not simply banking; it is a development tool. It has been estimated that there are 500 million economically active poor people in the world operating microenterprises and small businesses. Most of them do not have access to adequate financial services. The purpose of this Handbook is to bring together in a single source guiding principles and tools that will promote sustainable microfinance and create viable institutions. The Handbook takes a global perspective, drawing on lessons learned from the experiences of microfinance practitioners, donors, and others throughout the world.This volume covers extensively matters pertaining to the regulatory and policy framework and the essential components of institutional capacity building, such as product design, performance measuring and monitoring, and management of microfinance institutions.The handbook has three parts. 'Issues in Microfinance Provision' - Part I, takes a macroeconomic perspective toward general microfinance issues and is primarily nontechnical. 'Designing and Monitoring Financial Products and Services' - Part II, narrows its focus to the provision of financial intermediation, taking a more technical approach and moving progressively toward more specific (or micro) issues. 'Measuring Performance and Managing Viability' - Part III, is the most technical part of the handbook, focusing primarily on assessing the viability of microfinance institutions.

In 2006 the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh won the Nobel Peace Prize for its innovative microfinancing operations. This path-breaking study of gender, grassroots globalization, and neoliberalism in Bangladesh looks critically at the Grameen Bank and three of the leading NGOs in the country. Amid euphoria over the benefits of microfinance, Lamia Karim offers a timely and sobering perspective on the practical, and possibly detrimental, realities for poor women inducted into microfinance operations. In a series of ethnographic cases, Karim shows how NGOs use social codes of honor and shame to shape the conduct of women and to further an agenda of capitalist expansion. These unwritten policies subordinate poor women to multiple levels of debt that often lead to increased violence at the household and community levels, thereby weakening women’s ability to resist the onslaught of market forces. A compelling critique of the relationship between powerful NGOs and the financially strapped women beholden to them for capital, this book cautions us to be vigilant about the social realities within which women and loans circulate—realities that often have adverse effects on the lives of the very women these operations are meant to help.

The New Microfinance Handbook takes a market systems approach to financial inclusion, oriented by client needs. Framing the book with the client as the central element recognizes the emerging awareness that financial needs of the poor are many and are provided by multiple market players beyond the scope of any single institutional form. The book explores the fundamentals of this expanded view through examining client needs (demand), products and providers (supply), and the support systems required to increase financial access to the poor with a focus on operational support, rules and regulations, infrastructure and delivery channels, information, and funding. The objective of the New Microfinance Handbook is to provide a strategic guide to help assess the financial service needs of the poor and to determine how a diversified financial sector can address these needs. The New Microfinance Handbook takes a different approach from the original Microfinance Handbook. Rather than write from the “institutional” perspective (supply driven), this time we consider first and foremost the clients and their needs (demand side) and how the market can better meet their needs. The result is a book which is less of a “how-to” guide but rather a description of financial markets and how they work, or do not work, in serving the needs of the poor―and what is needed to improve the market. The book aims to facilitate access to and usage of financial products and services that genuinely meet the many needs of the poor through various sustainable financial service providers.

The New Microfinance Handbook takes a market systems approach to financial inclusion, oriented by client needs. Framing the book with the client as the central element recognizes the emerging awareness that financial needs of the poor are many and are provided by multiple market players beyond the scope of any single institutional form. The book explores the fundamentals of this expanded view through examining client needs (demand), products and providers (supply), and the support systems required to increase financial access to the poor with a focus on operational support, rules and regulations, infrastructure and delivery channels, information, and funding. The objective of the New Microfinance Handbook is to provide a strategic guide to help assess the financial service needs of the poor and to determine how a diversified financial sector can address these needs. The New Microfinance Handbook takes a different approach from the original Microfinance Handbook. Rather than write from the “institutional” perspective (supply driven), this time we consider first and foremost the clients and their needs (demand side) and how the market can better meet their needs. The result is a book which is less of a “how-to” guide but rather a description of financial markets and how they work, or do not work, in serving the needs of the poor―and what is needed to improve the market. The book aims to facilitate access to and usage of financial products and services that genuinely meet the many needs of the poor through various sustainable financial service providers.

A major source of financing for the poor and no longer a niche industryOver the past four decades, microfinance—the provision of loans, savings, and insurance to small businesses and entrepreneurs shut out of traditional capital markets—has grown from a niche service in Bangladesh and a few other countries to a significant global source of financing. Some 200 million people globally now receive support from microfinance institutions, with most of the recipients in the developing world. In the beginning, much of the microfinance industry was managed by non-governmental organizations, but today the majority of these institutions are commercial and regulated by governments, and they provide safe places for the poor to save, as well as offering much-needed capital and other financial services.Now out of infancy, the microfinance industry faces major challenges, including its ability to deal with mobile banking and other technology and concerns that some markets are now over-saturated with microfinance. How the industry deals with these and other challenges will determine whether it will continue to grow or will be subsumed within the larger global financial sector.This book is based on the results of a workshop at Lehigh University among thirty-four leaders in the industry. The editors, working with contributions from more than a dozen leading authorities in the field, tell the important story of how microfinance developed, how it has met the needs of hundreds of millions of people, and they address key questions about how it can continue to meet those needs in the future.

Microfinance has long been recognized as having significant potential to create jobs and reduce poverty. But to meet the twin challenges of growth and sustainability, managers of microfinance institutions (MFIs) must not only understand essential management functions: they must also be armed with innovative ideas and strategies to succeed in today's increasingly competitive environment. This book provides a valuable overview of the key management principles necessary to optimize the services of MFIs. The book examines the markets and marketing of MFIs and captures the different ways that managers can communicate the value of their products and services. It offers strategies to prevent risk from occurring and, if it does occur, explains how to rectify the situation. Practical techniques for allocating costs and determining prices are also highlighted, as well as the importance of plans, budgets and reports. In a clear, easy to follow presentation, the book includes illustrations and case studies to assist managers in applying the concepts outlined in the text.

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The idea that small loans can help poor families build businesses and exit poverty has blossomed into a global movement. The concept has captured the public imagination, drawn in billions of dollars, reached millions of customers, and garnered a Nobel Prize. Radical in its suggestion that the poor are creditworthy and conservative in its insistence on individual accountability, the idea has expanded beyond credit into savings, insurance, and money transfers, earning the name microfinance. But is it the boon so many think it is?Readers of David Roodman's openbook blog will immediately recognize his thorough, straightforward, and trenchant analysis. Due Diligence, written entirely in public with input from readers, probes the truth about microfinance to guide governments, foundations, investors, and private citizens who support financial services for poor people. In particular, it explains the need to deemphasize microcredit in favor of other financial services for the poor.

Microfinance is the business of giving small, collateral-free loans to poor borrowers that are paid back in frequent intervals with interest. While these for-profit microfinance institutions (MFIs) promise social and economic empowerment, they have mainly succeeded at enfolding the poor―especially women―into the vast circuits of global finance. Financializing Poverty ethnographically examines how the emergence of MFIs has allowed financial institutions in the city of Kolkata, India, to capitalize on the poverty of its residents. This book reveals how MFIs have restructured debt relationships in new ways. On the one hand, they have opened access to new streams of credit. However, as the network of finance increasingly incorporates the poor, the "inclusive" dimensions of microfinance are continuously met with rigid forms of credit risk management that reproduce the very inequality the loans are meant to alleviate. Moreover, despite being collateral-free loans, the use of life insurance to manage the high mortality rates of poor borrowers has led to the collateralization of life itself. Thus the newfound ability of the poor to use MFI loans has entrapped them in a system dependent not only on their circulation of capital, but on the poverty that threatens their lives.

Since its emergence in the 1970s, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty and under-development in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, royalty, movie stars, high-profile politicians and "trouble-shooting" economists. Its most famous pioneer, Muhammad Yunus, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.In this provocative and controversial analysis, Milford Bateman reveals that microfinance doesn't actually work. That, in fact, the case for it has largely been built on a desire to advance a particular free market ideology, on hype and egregious half-truths, and -- latterly -- on the Wall Street-style greed, deception and individual self-interest of those promoting and working in microfinance. Using a multitude of case studies from across the globe -- from India to Cambodia, Bolivia to Uganda, Serbia to Mexico amongst many others -- he exposes why many of its most fundamental building blocks are largely myths. In doing so, he demonstrates that microfinance actually constitutes a major barrier to sustainable economic and social development, and thus also to sustainable poverty reduction.As developing and transition countries attempt to repair the devastation wrought by the global financial crisis, Bateman argues forcefully that the role of microfinance in development policy needs to be urgently and fundamentally reconsidered.

This book explores the present circumstances of Burma’s financial malaise, but does not neglect how it got there. Opening its account at the dawn of the colonial era, Fiery Dragons tells the story of Burma's financial system - of its banks, moneylenders and 'microfinanciers' - through to the present day, to the events that in our times bring the Burmese people out into their streets to demand something better. It argues that Burma's financial system matters, and that the careful study of this system can tell us much about Burma (and something about other developing countries, too).While financial systems and institutions matter in all countries, the book argues that they especially count in Burma. Events in the financial and monetary sphere have been unusually - spectacularly - prominent in Burma's turbulent modern history. From the Chettiars and the alienation of the land to the backlash against the foreign moneylender. From the great state banks of the democracy years to the Orwellian 'people's banks' of the Burma way to socialism. From Burma's bizarre demonetization experiences to the rise and crash of the entrepreneurial bankers. And from the money launderers to the practitioners of microfinance. The story of Burma's financial system and its players is one that has shaped the country. It is a dramatic story, and an important one.

Microfinancing is considered one of the most effective strategies in the fight against global poverty. And now, in Small Loans, Big Changes, author Alex Counts reveals how Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus revolutionized global antipoverty efforts through the development of this approach. This book presents compelling stories of women benefiting from Yunus’s microcredit in rural Bangladesh and urban Chicago, and recounts the experiences of different borrowers in each country, interspersing them with stories of Yunus, his colleagues, and their counterparts in Chicago.

This slim volume provides an easy-to-read description of how poor people in developing countries manage their money. It also describes the recent attempts of pro-poor banks and microfinance institutions to provide services to the poor.

Poverty reduction has become the central goal of development policies over the last decade but there is a growing realization that the poorest people rarely benefit from poverty reduction programs. Microfinance programs can help poor people improve their lives but generally do not reach the extremely poor and the chronic poor: casual laborers in remote rural areas, ethnic and indigenous minorities, older people, widows, migrants, bonded laborers and others.To counter this, governments, NGOs and donors have started to mount programs explicitly targeting the poorest. This book is the first attempt to examine such initiatives and identify what works for the poorest. It asks the questions: What are the characteristics of extreme poverty? How can we target the very poor? How can we ensure that women are not excluded? Through a set of carefully selected and well-integrated papers, this book analyzes innovative ultra-poor programs from around the world and explores the lessons that emerge from this new and important body of knowledge.What Works for the Poorest? should be read by staff of donor agencies and NGOs, students of development studies and interested readers who are concerned about chronic poverty.

Microfinance has long been recognized as having significant potential to create jobs and reduce poverty. But to meet the twin challenges of growth and sustainability, managers of microfinance institutions (MFIs) must not only understand essential management functions: they must also be armed with innovative ideas and strategies to succeed in today's increasingly competitive environment. This book provides a valuable overview of the key management principles necessary to optimize the services of MFIs. The book examines the markets and marketing of MFIs and captures the different ways that managers can communicate the value of their products and services. It offers strategies to prevent risk from occurring and, if it does occur, explains how to rectify the situation. Practical techniques for allocating costs and determining prices are also highlighted, as well as the importance of plans, budgets and reports. In a clear, easy to follow presentation, the book includes illustrations and case studies to assist managers in applying the concepts outlined in the text.