Microcredit

Last updated

Grameen bank in Bargaon, Odisha. Utkal Grameen Bank.jpg
Grameen bank in Bargaon, Odisha.

Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment, or a verifiable credit history. It is designed to support entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty. Many recipients are illiterate, and therefore unable to complete paperwork required to get conventional loans. As of 2009 an estimated 74 million people held microloans that totaled US$38 billion. Grameen Bank reports that repayment success rates are between 95 and 98 percent. [1]

Contents

Microcredit is part of microfinance, which provides a wider range of financial services, especially savings accounts, to the poor. Modern microcredit is generally considered to have originated with the Grameen Bank founded in Bangladesh in 1983. [2] Many traditional banks subsequently introduced microcredit despite initial misgivings. The United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit. As of 2012, microcredit is widely used in developing countries and is presented as having "enormous potential as a tool for poverty alleviation." [3] Microcredit is a tool that can be helpful to possibly reduce feminization of poverty in developing countries.

Some argue that microcredit has not had a positive impact on gender relationships, does not alleviate poverty, has led many borrowers into a debt trap and constitutes a "privatization of welfare". [4] [5] The first randomized evaluation of microcredit, conducted by Abhijit Banerjee and others, showed mixed results: there was no effect on household expenditure, gender equity, education or health, but the number of new businesses increased by one third compared to a control group. [6] Some of this increase in the number of businesses can be due to the phenomenon of 'informal intermediation' documented by Frithjof Arp and collaborators: Philanthropic, low-interest-rate microcredit fosters unintended entrepreneurship where some borrowers split loans they receive and on-lend to less-entrepreneurial borrowers. [7]

History

Ideas relating to microcredit can be found at various times in modern history. Jonathan Swift inspired the Irish Loan Funds of the 18th and 19th centuries. [8] John Wesley began a microcredit scheme in 1746. His journal on 17/1/1748 records:

I made a public collection toward a lending stock for the poor. Our rule is, to lend only twenty shillings at once, which is repaid weekly within three months. I began this about a year and a half ago: thirty pounds sixteen shillings were then collected; and out of this, no less than two hundred and fifty-five persons have been relieved in eighteen months.

In the mid-19th century, Individualist anarchist Lysander Spooner wrote about the benefits of numerous small loans for entrepreneurial activities to the poor as a way to alleviate poverty. [9] At about the same time, but independently to Spooner, Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen founded the first cooperative lending banks to support farmers in rural Germany. [10]

Comilla model

In the 1950s, Akhtar Hameed Khan began distributing group-oriented credit in East Pakistan. Khan used the Comilla Model, in which credit is distributed through community-based initiatives. [2] The project failed due to the over-involvement of the Pakistani government, and the hierarchies created within communities as certain members began to exert more control over loans than others. [2]

Modern microcredit

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, which is generally considered the first modern microcredit institution Grameen Yunus Dec 04.jpg
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, which is generally considered the first modern microcredit institution

The origins of microcredit in its current practical incarnation can be linked to several organizations founded in Bangladesh, especially the Grameen Bank. The Grameen Bank, which is generally considered the first modern microcredit institution, was founded in 1983 by Muhammad Yunus. [2] Yunus began the project in a small town called Jobra, using his own money to deliver small loans at low-interest rates to the rural poor. Grameen Bank was followed by organizations such as BRAC in 1972 and ASA in 1978. [11] Microcredit reached Latin America with the establishment in Bolivia in 1986 of PRODEM, a bank that later transformed into the for-profit BancoSol. [12] In Chile, BancoEstado Microempresas is the primary microcredit institution. [13] Microcredit quickly became a popular tool for economic development, with hundreds of institutions emerging throughout the third world. [2] Though the Grameen Bank was formed initially as a non-profit organization dependent upon government subsidies, it later became a corporate entity and was renamed Grameen II in 2002. [11] Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work providing microcredit services to the poor. [14]

Principles

Economic principles

Microcredit organizations were initially created as alternatives to the "loan sharks" known to take advantage of clients. [2] Indeed, many microlenders began as non-profit organizations and operated with government funds or private subsidies. By the 1980s, however, the "financial systems approach", influenced by neoliberalism and propagated by the Harvard Institute for International Development, became the dominant ideology among microcredit organizations. The neoliberal model of microcredit can also be referred to as the institutionist model, which promotes applying market solutions as a viable way to address social problems. [15] The commercialization of microcredit officially began in 1984 with the formation of Unit Desa (BRI-UD) within the Bank Rakyat Indonesia. Unit Desa offered 'kupedes' microloans based on market interest rates.

Yunus has sharply criticized the shift in microcredit organizations from the Grameen Bank model as a non-profit bank to for-profit institutions: [16]

I never dreamed that one day microcredit would give rise to its own breed of loan sharks ... There are always people eager to take advantage of the vulnerable. But credit programs that seek to profit from the suffering of the poor should not be described as "microcredit," and investors who own such programs should not be allowed to benefit from the trust and respect that microcredit banks have rightly earned.

Many microcredit organizations now function as independent banks. This has led to their charging higher interest rates on loans and placing more emphasis on savings programs. [2] Notably, Unit Desa has charged in excess of 20 percent on small business loans. [17] The application of neoliberal economics to microcredit has generated much debate among scholars and development practitioners, with some claiming that microcredit bank directors, such as Muhammad Yunus, apply the practices of loan sharks for their personal enrichment. [11] Indeed, the academic debate foreshadowed a Wall-street style scandal involving the Mexican microcredit organization Compartamos. [2]

Even so, the numbers indicate that ethical microlending and investor profit can go hand-in-hand. In the 1990s a rural finance minister in Indonesia showed how Unit Desa could lower its rates by about 8% while still bringing attractive returns to investors. [17]

Group lending

Though lending to groups has long been a key part of microcredit,[ citation needed ] microcredit initially began with the principle of lending to individuals. [11] Despite the use of solidarity circles in 1970s Jobra, Grameen Bank and other early microcredit institutions initially focused on individual lending. [12] (A solidarity circle is a group of borrowers that provide mutual encouragement, information, and assistance in times of need, though loans remain the responsibility of individuals. [18] [19] ) Indeed, Muhammad Yunus propagated the notion that every person has the potential to become an entrepreneur. Yunus saw poverty eradication as being in the hands of the individual. Because of this, he promoted private ownership, and consequently, neoliberalism. The use of group-lending was motivated by economics of scale, as the costs associated with monitoring loans and enforcing repayment are significantly lower when credit is distributed to groups rather than individuals. [12] Many times the loan to one participant in group-lending depends upon the successful repayment from another member, thus transferring repayment responsibility off of microcredit institutions to loan recipients. [12]

Lending to women

Lending to women has become an important principle in microcredit, with banks and NGOs such as BancoSol, WWB, and Pro Mujer catering to women exclusively. [12] Pro Mujer also implemented a new strategy to combine microcredits with health-care services, since the health of their clients is crucial to the success of microcredits. [20] Though Grameen Bank initially tried to lend to both men and women at equal rates, women presently make up ninety-five percent of the bank's clients. Women continue to make up seventy-five percent of all microcredit recipients worldwide. [12] Exclusive lending to women began in the 1980s when Grameen Bank found that women have higher repayment rates, and tend to accept smaller loans than men. [2]

Examples

Bangladesh

Grameen Bank in Bangladesh is the oldest and probably best-known microfinance institution in the world. Grameen Bank launched their US operations in New York in April 2008. [21] Bank of America has announced plans to award more than $3.7 million in grants to nonprofits to use in backing microloan programs. [22] The Accion U.S. Network, the US subsidiary of the better-known Accion International, has provided over $450 million in microloans since 1991, with an over 90% repayment rate. [23] One research study of the Grameen model shows that poorer individuals are safer borrowers because they place more value on the relationship with the bank. [24] Even so, efforts to replicate Grameen-style solidarity lending in developed countries have generally not succeeded. For example, the Calmeadow Foundation tested an analogous peer-lending model in three locations in Canada during the 1990s. It concluded that a variety of factors—including difficulties in reaching the target market, the high risk profile of clients, their general distaste for the joint liability requirement, and high overhead costs—made solidarity lending unviable without subsidies. [25] Microcredits have also been introduced in Israel, [26] Russia, Ukraine and other nations where micro-loans help small business entrepreneurs overcome cultural barriers in the mainstream business society. The Israel Free Loan Association (IFLA) has lent more than $100 million in the past two decades to Israeli citizens of all backgrounds. [27]

India

In India, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) finances more than 500 banks that on-lend funds to self-help groups (SHGs). SHGs comprise twenty or fewer members, of whom the majority are women from the poorest castes and tribes. Members save small amounts of money, as little as a few rupees a month in a group fund. Members may borrow from the group fund for a variety of purposes ranging from household emergencies to school fees. As SHGs prove capable of managing their funds well, they may borrow from a local bank to invest in small business or farm activities. Banks typically lend up to four rupees for every rupee in the group fund. In Asia borrowers generally pay interest rates that range from 30% to 70% without commission and fees. [28] Nearly 1.4 million SHGs comprising approximately 20 million women now borrow from banks, which makes the Indian SHG-Bank Linkage model the largest microfinance program in the world. Similar programs are evolving in Africa and Southeast Asia with the assistance of organizations like IFAD, Opportunity International, Catholic Relief Services, Compassion International, CARE, APMAS, Oxfam, Tearfund and World Vision.

United States

In the United States, microcredit has generally been defined as loans of less than $50,000 to people—mostly entrepreneurs—who cannot, for various reasons, borrow from a bank. Most nonprofit microlenders include services like financial literacy training and business plan consultations, which contribute to the expense of providing such loans but also, those groups say, to the success of their borrowers. [29] One such organization in the United States, the Accion U.S. Network is a nonprofit microfinance organization headquartered in New York, New York. It is the largest and only nationwide nonprofit microfinance network in the US. The Accion U.S. Network is part of Accion International, a US-based nonprofit organization operating globally, with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need to create or grow healthy businesses. The domestic Accion programs started in Brooklyn, New York, and grew from there to become the first nationwide network microlender. [30] [ circular reference ] US microcredit programs have helped many poor but ambitious borrowers to improve their lot. The Aspen Institute's study of 405 microentrepreneurs indicates that more than half of the loan recipients escaped poverty within five years. On average, their household assets grew by nearly $16,000 during that period; the group's reliance on public assistance dropped by more than 60%. [31] Several corporate sponsors including Citi Foundation and Capital One launched Grameen America in New York. Since then the financial outfit—not bank—has been serving the poor, mainly women, throughout four of the city's five boroughs (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens) as well as Omaha, Nebraska and Indianapolis, Indiana. In four years, Grameen America has facilitated loans to over 9,000 borrowers valued over $35 million. It has had, as Grameen CEO Stephen Vogel notes, "a 99 percent repayment rate". [32]

Peer-to-peer lending over the Web

The principles of microcredit have also been applied in attempting to address several non-poverty-related issues. Among these, multiple Internet-based organizations have developed platforms that facilitate a modified form of peer-to-peer lending where a loan is not made in the form of a single, direct loan, but as the aggregation of a number of smaller loans—often at a negligible interest rate.

Examples of platforms that connect lenders to micro-entrepreneurs via Internet are Kiva, Zidisha, and the Microloan Foundation. Another internet-based microlender, United Prosperity, uses a variation on the usual microlending model; with United Prosperity the micro-lender provides a guarantee to a local bank which then lends back double that amount to the micro-entrepreneur. United Prosperity claims this provides both greater leverage and allows the micro-entrepreneur to develop a credit history with their local bank for future loans. In 2009, the US-based nonprofit Zidisha became the first peer-to-peer microlending platform to link lenders and borrowers directly across international borders without local intermediaries. [33] From 2008 through 2014, Vittana allowed peer-to-peer lending for student loans in developing countries. [34]

Impact of microcredit

The impact of microcredit is a subject of some controversy. Proponents state that it reduces poverty through higher employment and higher incomes. This is expected to lead to improved nutrition and improved education of the borrowers' children. Some argue that microcredit empowers women. In the US, UK and Canada, it is argued that microcredit helps recipients to graduate from welfare programs. [35]

Critics say that microcredit, if not carefully directed, may not increase incomes, and may drive poor households into a debt trap. They add that the money from loans may be used for durable consumer goods or consumption instead of being used for productive investments, that it may fail to empower women, and that it may not improve health or education. [36]

The available evidence indicates that in many cases microcredit has facilitated the creation and the growth of businesses. It has often generated self-employment, but it has not necessarily increased incomes after interest payments. In some cases it has driven borrowers into debt traps. Some studies suggest that microcredit has not generally empowered women. Microcredit has achieved much less than what its proponents said it would achieve, but its negative impacts have not been as drastic as some critics have argued. Microcredit is just one factor influencing the success of a small businesses, whose success is influenced to a much larger extent by how much an economy or a particular market grows. [37]

Unintended consequences of microfinance include informal intermediation: some entrepreneurial borrowers may become informal intermediaries between microfinance initiatives and poorer micro-entrepreneurs. Those who more easily qualify for microfinance may split loans into smaller credit to even poorer borrowers. Informal intermediation ranges from casual intermediaries at the good or benign end of the spectrum to loan sharks at the professional and sometimes criminal end of the spectrum. [38]

Improvement

Many microfinance institutions also offer savings facilities, such as Banco Palma in Brazil, shown here. Inside banco palmas woman.JPG
Many microfinance institutions also offer savings facilities, such as Banco Palma in Brazil, shown here.

Many scholars and practitioners suggest an integrated package of services ("a credit-plus" approach) rather than just providing credits. When access to credit is combined with savings facilities, non-productive loan facilities, insurance, enterprise development (production-oriented and management training, marketing support) and welfare-related services (literacy and health services, gender and social awareness training), the adverse effects discussed above can be diminished. [39] Some argue that more experienced entrepreneurs who are getting loans should be qualified for bigger loans to ensure the success of the program. [40]

One of the principal challenges of microcredit is providing small loans at an affordable cost. The global average interest and fee rate is estimated at 37%, with rates reaching as high as 70% in some markets. [41] The reason for the high interest rates is not primarily cost of capital. Indeed, the local microfinance organizations that receive zero-interest loan capital from the online microlending platform Kiva charge average interest and fee rates of 35.21%. [42] Rather, the principal reason for the high cost of microcredit loans is the high transaction cost of traditional microfinance operations relative to loan size. [43] Microcredit practitioners have long argued that such high interest rates are simply unavoidable. The result is that the traditional approach to microcredit has made only limited progress in resolving the problem it purports to address: that the world's poorest people pay the world's highest cost for small business growth capital. The high costs of traditional microcredit loans limit their effectiveness as a poverty-fighting tool. Borrowers who do not manage to earn a rate of return at least equal to the interest rate may actually end up poorer as a result of accepting the loans. According to a recent survey of microfinance borrowers in Ghana published by the Center for Financial Inclusion, more than one-third of borrowers surveyed reported struggling to repay their loans. [44] In recent years, microcredit providers have shifted their focus from the objective of increasing the volume of lending capital available, to address the challenge of providing microfinance loans more affordably. Analyst David Roodman contends that in mature markets, the average interest and fee rates charged by microfinance institutions tend to fall over time. [45]

Professor Dean Karlan from Yale University advocates also giving the poor access to savings accounts. [46]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microfinance</span> Provision of microloans to poor entrepreneurs and small businesses

Microfinance is a category of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings and checking accounts; microinsurance; and payment systems, among other services. Microfinance services are designed to reach excluded customers, usually poorer population segments, possibly socially marginalized, or geographically more isolated, and to help them become self-sufficient. ID Ghana is an example of a microfinance institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grameen Bank</span> Bank and microfinancer in Bangladesh

Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank founded in Bangladesh. It makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad Yunus</span> Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below". The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that "lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty" and that "across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development". Yunus has received several other national and international honours. He received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.

A micro-enterprise is generally defined as a small business employing nine people or fewer, and having a balance sheet or turnover less than a certain amount. The terms microenterprise and microbusiness have the same meaning, though traditionally when referring to a small business financed by microcredit the term microenterprise is often used. Similarly, when referring to a small, usually legal business that is not financed by microcredit, the term microbusiness is often used. Internationally, most microenterprises are family businesses employing one or two persons. Most microenterprise owners are primarily interested in earning a living to support themselves and their families. They only grow the business when something in their lives changes and they need to generate a larger income. According to information found on the Census.gov website, microenterprises make up 95% of the 28 million US companies tracked by the census.

Opportunity International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization chartered in the United States. Through a network of 47 program and support partners, Opportunity International provides small business loans, savings, insurance and training to more than 14 million people in the developing world. It has clients in more than 20 countries and works with fundraising partners in the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Opportunity International has 501(c)(3) status as a tax-exempt charitable organization in the United States under the US Internal Revenue Code.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association for Social Advancement</span>

The Association for Social Advancement is a non-governmental organisation based in Bangladesh which provides microcredit financing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiva (organization)</span> Micro-loan platform

Kiva Microfunds is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California. Kiva's mission is "to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive."

<i>Banker to the Poor</i>

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty is an autobiography of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus. The book describes Yunus' early life, moving into his college years, and into his years as a professor at Chittagong University. While a professor at Chittagong University, Yunus began to take notice of the extreme poverty of the villagers around him. In 1976, Yunus incorporated the help of Maimuna Begum to collect data of people in Jobra who were living in poverty. Most of these impoverished people would take a loan from moneylenders to buy some raw material, using that raw material to create some product, and then selling back the good to the moneylender to repay the loan, earning a very meager profit. One woman interviewed made no more than two cents per day creating bamboo stools using this system. The list Begum brought back to Yunus named 42 women who were living on credit of 856 taka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lift Above Poverty Organization</span> Nigerian organisation

LAPO is a Nigerian organisation with a microfinance bank dedicated to self-employment through microfinance and an NGO, a non-governmental, non-profit community development organization focused on the empowerment of the poor and the vulnerable.

Village banking is a microcredit methodology whereby financial services are administered locally rather than centralized in a formal bank. Village banking has its roots in ancient cultures and was most recently adopted for use by micro-finance institutions (MFIs) as a way to control costs. Early MFI village banking methods were innovated by Grameen Bank and then later developed by groups such as FINCA International founder John Hatch. Among US-based non-profit agencies there are at least 31 microfinance institutions (MFIs) that have collectively created over 800 village banking programs in at least 90 countries. And in many of these countries there are host-country MFIs—sometimes dozens—that are village banking practitioners as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solidarity lending</span> Lending practice

Solidarity lending is a lending practice where small groups borrow collectively and group members encourage one another to repay. It is an important building block of microfinance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grameen family of organizations</span>

The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of both commercial and non-profit ventures. It was first established by Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank. Most of the organizations in the Grameen group have central offices at the Grameen Bank Complex in Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank started to diversify in the late 1980s when it began attending to unutilized or underutilized fishing ponds, as well as irrigation pumps like deep tubewells. In 1989, these diversified interests started growing into separate organizations, as the fisheries project became Grameen Fisheries Foundation and the irrigation project became Grameen Krishi Foundation.

Grameen America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit microfinance organization based in New York City. It was founded by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus in 2008. Grameen America is run by former Avon Chairman and CEO Andrea Jung. The organization provides loans, savings programs, financial education, and credit establishment to women who live in poverty in the United States. All loans must be used to build small businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microcredit for water supply and sanitation</span>

Microcredit for water supply and sanitation is the application of microcredit to provide loans to small enterprises and households in order to increase access to an improved water source and sanitation in developing countries. While most investments in water supply and sanitation infrastructure are financed by the public sector, investment levels have been insufficient to achieve universal access. Commercial credit to public utilities was limited by low tariffs and insufficient cost-recovery. Microcredits are a complementary or alternative approach to allow the poor to gain access to water supply and sanitation.

Zidisha allows people to lend small amounts of money directly to entrepreneurs in developing countries. It is the first peer-to-peer microlending service to link borrowers and lenders across international borders without a local microfinance institution intermediary. The organization is named after the Swahili word zidisha, which means "grow" or "expand".

To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America is a 2010 documentary film directed and produced by Gayle Ferraro about the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner's ongoing campaign against poverty around the world. It touches on the beginnings of the original Grameen Bank in the 1970s, then focuses primarily on the beginnings of Grameen America's work in the US, especially the launch of its first programs in Queens, New York in 2008. The title of the film comes from a clip of Muhammed Yunus speaking in the film: "In a world where you need a dollar to catch a dollar, you need to have something to help the bottom people to lift themselves up."

Energy in Common (EIC) was a not-for-profit organization issuing microloans specifically and only for renewable energy technologies. EIC was founded by Hugh Whalan and Scott Tudman in 2009. It has the very ambitious goal of delivering renewable energy to 15 million people in the next five years, while fighting poverty by empowering developing world entrepreneurs through microloans. EIC represents one of the most promising contenders in the growing green microfinance sector. As of 2012, it has ceased operations due to a lack of funds after their overseas partners defaulted on their loan obligations.

YND is one of the largest online P2P (peer-to-peer) lending platforms in China. It allows people to lend directly to women in rural area, especially the Northwest China. YND is a social enterprise based in Beijing, China. It is supported mainly by individual lenders from the Internet.

The impact of microcredit is a subject of much controversy. Proponents state that it reduces poverty through higher employment and higher incomes. This is expected to lead to improved nutrition and improved education of the borrowers' children. Some argue that microcredit empowers women. In the US and Canada, it is argued that microcredit helps recipients to graduate from welfare programs. Critics say that microcredit has not increased incomes, but has driven poor households into a debt trap, in some cases even leading to suicide. They add that the money from loans is often used for durable consumer goods or consumption instead of being used for productive investments, that it fails to empower women, and that it has not improved health or education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kashf Foundation</span>

Kashf Foundation is a non-profit organization, founded by Roshaneh Zafar in 1996. Kashf is regarded as the first microfinance institution (MFI) of Pakistan that uses village banking methodology in microcredit to alleviate poverty by providing affordable financial and non-financial services to low income households - particularly for women, to build their capacity and enhance their economic role. With headquarters in Lahore, Punjab, Kashf has regional offices in five major cities and over 200 branches across the Pakistan.

References

  1. "What We Do - Grameen Foundation - Connecting the World's Poor to Their Potential".
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Bateman, Milford (2010). Why Doesn't Microfinance Work?. Zed Books.
  3. Jason Cons and Kasia Paprocki of the Goldin Institute, "The Limits of Microcredit—A Bangladeshi Case" Archived 2012-01-16 at the Wayback Machine , Food First Backgrounder (Institute for Food and Development Policy), Winter 2008, volume 14, number 4.
  4. Gina Neff:Microcredit, microresults The Left Business Observer #74, October 1996
  5. Arp, Frithjof (January 12, 2018). "The 34 billion dollar question: Is microfinance the answer to poverty?". Global Agenda. World Economic Forum.
  6. Banerjee, Abhijit; Esther Duflo; Rachel Glennester; Cynthia Kinnan. "The miracle of microfinance? Evidence from a randomized evaluation" . Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  7. Arp, Frithjof; Ardisa, Alvin; Ardisa, Alviani (2017). "Microfinance for poverty alleviation: Do transnational initiatives overlook fundamental questions of competition and intermediation?". Transnational Corporations. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 24 (3): 103–117. doi:10.18356/10695889-en. hdl: 10419/170696 . S2CID   73558727. UNCTAD/DIAE/IA/2017D4A8.
  8. Aidan Hollis; Arthur Sweetman (March 1997). "Complementarity, Competition and Institutional Development: The Irish Loan Funds through Three Centuries" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 30, 2012.
  9. Spooner, Lysander (1846). "Poverty: Its illegal causes and legal cure". Boston. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2012.
  10. Deutscher Raiffeisenverband:The Raiffeisen organization: Beginnings, tasks, current developments Archived 2007-08-10 at the Wayback Machine , March 2011
  11. 1 2 3 4 Drake, Deborah (2002). The Commercialization of Microfinance. Kumarian.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Armendariz, Beatriz (2005). The Economics of Microfinance. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press.
  13. de la Torre, Augusto; Gozzi, Juan Carlos; Schmukler, Sergio L. (2017). "Microfinance: BancoEstado's Experience in Chile". Innovative Experiences in Access to Finance: Market-Friendly Roles for the Visible Hand?. pp. 221–251.
  14. Nobel Prize.org:The Nobel Peace Prize 2006:Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank, retrieved on 13 February 2012
  15. Bisen, Arjun; Dalton, Bronwen; Wilson, Rachel (November 2012). "The Social Construction of the Microfinance Industry: a comparison of donor and recipient perspectives". Cosmopolitan Civil Societies. 4 (2): 62–83. doi: 10.5130/ccs.v4i2.2715 .
  16. Muhammad Yunus, “Sacrificing Microcredit for Megaprofits” New York Times (15 January 2011) A.23.
  17. 1 2 "BRI-Unit Desa, Indonesia".
  18. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 6, 2009. Retrieved July 30, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. Minilening uitleg. "Wat is een minilening ?". Minilening (in Dutch). Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  20. Microfinance - Healthy Clients http://www.dandc.eu/en/article/pro-mujer-why-microfinance-institutions-should-offer-healthcare-services-too
  21. University of Michigan, Urban and Regional Planning Economic Development Handbook: Microcredit strategies for assisting neighborhood businesses, 22 March 2005, retrieved on 13 February 2012
  22. "Bank of America Issues Grants for Microloans". Wall Street Journal. October 6, 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2012.
  23. "U.S. Network". June 5, 2014. Archived from the original on February 22, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  24. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, The Creditworthiness of the Poor: A Model of the Grameen Bank, April 2010
  25. Cheryl Frankiewicz. "Calmeadow Metrofund: A Canadian Experiment in Sustainable Microfinance", Calmeadow Foundation, April 2001.
  26. Svivatomehet.org.il (in Hebrew)
  27. Israel Free Loan Associantion, History of IFLA, "History of IFLA | Israel Free Loan Association". Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved July 26, 2013., July 26, 2013
  28. Nimal A. Fernando:Understanding and Dealing with High Interest Rate on Microcredit, Asian Development Bank, May 2006, p. 1
  29. Dewan, Shaila (October 29, 2013). "Microcredit for Americans". The New York Times .
  30. Accion U.S. Network
  31. Bhatt, Nitin; Painter, Gary; Tang, Shui-Yan (November 1, 1999). "Can Microcredit Work in the United States?". Harvard Business Review.
  32. Bayrasli, Elmira. "Microfinance in America?". forbes.com.
  33. "Zidisha Set to "Expand" in Peer-to-Peer Microfinance", Microfinance Focus, Feb 2010 Archived 2010-02-28 at the Wayback Machine
  34. Rao. L. (2010). Vittana Applies The Kiva Model To Help Finance Education In Developing Countries. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from https://techcrunch.com/2010/03/15/vittana-applies-the-kiva-model-to-help-finance-education-in-developing-countries/
  35. Nitin Bhatt, Gary Painter, and Shui-Yan Tang, 1999. “Can Microcredit Work in the United States?”, Harvard Business Review, November–December 1999 Issue. Retrieved March 06, 2018, from https://hbr.org/1999/11/can-microcredit-work-in-the-united-states - "U.S. microcredit programs have helped many poor but ambitious borrowers to improve their lot. The Aspen Institute’s study of 405 microentrepreneurs indicates that more than half of the loan recipients escaped poverty within five years. On average, their household assets grew by nearly $16,000 during that period; the group’s reliance on public assistance dropped by more than 60%."
  36. Tonelli M. and C. Dalglish, 2012. “Micro-Credit is Necessary but Not Sufficient for Entrepreneurs in Desperate Poverty”, FSR Forum, Vo.14, Issue 4 (p.16-21). ISSN 1389-0913
  37. "Microcredit doesn't live up to promise of transforming lives of the poor, 6 studies show". EurekAlert!.
  38. Arp, Frithjof; Ardisa, Alvin; Ardisa, Alviani (2017). "Microfinance for poverty alleviation: Do transnational initiatives overlook fundamental questions of competition and intermediation?". Transnational Corporations. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 24 (3): 103–117. doi:10.18356/10695889-en. hdl: 10419/170696 . S2CID   73558727. UNCTAD/DIAE/IA/2017D4A8.
  39. Holvoet, Nathalie. "The Impact of Microfinance on Decision-Making Agency: Evidence from South India".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  40. Goetz; Gupta (1996). "Who takes the credit? Gender, Power, Control over loan use in Rural credit program in Bangladesh" (PDF). World Development. 24 (1): 45–63. doi:10.1016/0305-750x(95)00124-u.[ permanent dead link ]
  41. McFarquhar, Neil (April 13, 2010). "Banks Making Big Profits From Tiny Loans". New York Times.
  42. "Kiva Help - Interest Rate Comparison". Kiva.org. Archived from the original on August 3, 2009. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  43. "How Kiva works - Kiva".
  44. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 18, 2011. Retrieved July 23, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  45. Roodman, David. "Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry Into Microfinance." Center for Global Development, 2011.
  46. BBC:Business Weekly, 2 August 2009

Further reading