Searching: Blogs

Constructing an Early Warning Index

Over-indebtedness has a detrimental effect on all players involved: first and foremost for the borrower.

Can Branchless Banking Be Profitable?

The Agent Network Management toolkit comes with a financial model to help providers project the revenues generated in a branchless banking implementation for each member of the supply chain.

Over-indebtedness: Striking the Right Balance

Over-indebtedness is as old as lending itself. A growing credit market will always bring about cases of client over-indebtedness. To put consumer protection measures in place is an essential part of good practice.

Learning from the Indian Microfinance Crisis

As the Indian microfinance sector responds to the Andhra Pradesh crisis, an opportunity has been created in India, as well as in the global sector, to reevaluate their “people practices” and make them a core part of a system that has provided a safety net for millions.

Are We Drifting Yet?

For many in the industry, debates about pricing, profitability, capital markets, investors, and welfare of clients, have a common root in one fundamental concern: mission drift.

Social Performance and Financial Performance: Who’s Pulling Who?

The Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) has released a new brief, Microfinance Synergies and Trade-Offs: Social versus Financial Performance Outcomes in 2008.

Can Mobile Money Be Profitable? We Asked Mobile Money Managers

We surveyed over 20 senior managers from some of the major mobile network operators in over 15 markets. 64 percent of the respondents launched mobile money in the past year. 70 percent claim to already reach over half-a-million customers each with transfers or bill payments or both.

SKS IPO Success and Excess

By market standards, the SKS IPO is a great success. Institutional investors have over-subscribed their allocations by 13 times, and the company’s valuation of USD 1.5 billion came in at the top end of the offer band price.

Truth in Advertising

How far do microfinance funds expect their investments to go in changing lives? Are microfinance funds looking for specific changes in the lives of poor people or increased access to finance in a responsible way? And can we tell from the information they provide?