Richard Rosenberg

Richard Rosenberg is a former senior advisor on policy issues and research at CGAP and has written or contributed to numerous CGAP publications. His areas of focus include interest rate issues, over-indebtedness, and regulation of microfinance.

His experience with microfinance spans 20 years and two dozen countries. Before joining CGAP, Rosenberg was deputy director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Center for Economic Growth and spent nine years in Latin America, managing investment promotion, privatization, pension reform, and development finance activities. He has taught in the Boulder Institute of Microfinance program since its inception. He holds a law degree from Harvard University.

By Richard Rosenberg

Research

CGAP Reflections on the Compartamos Initial Public Offering

On April 20, 2007, Banco Compartamos, a microfinance institution (MFI) that was launched in 1990 and originally funded by grants from various sources, including CGAP, completed a landmark initial public offering (IPO) of its stock.
Research

Community-Managed Loan Funds: Which Ones Work?

This Focus Note presents conclusions from a performance review of dozens of CMLF projects established or supported by donors and international nongovernment organizations (NGOs) over the past 15 years. It turns out that success is strongly linked to the source of funding for the loans group members receive.
Research

Aid Effectiveness in Microfinance

How effective have aid agencies been in their support to microfinance institutions (MFIs)?
Research

Graduating the Poorest into Microfinance:

Microfinance—or formal financial services for the poor—helps people fight poverty on their own terms, in a sustainable way.
Research

Financial Institutions with a Double Bottom Line

This Occasional Paper summarizes the results of CGAP's survey of the global outreach of a broad set of institutions that extend financial services downward -- institutions with a "double bottom line" of financial and social/development objectives. The survey found that over 750 million accounts exist below the traditional level of commercial banks and that a substantial fraction of these predominantly savings accounts probably belong to the poor or near poor -- and represent an important opportunity for outreach.