Microfinance

India Regulator Proposes Radical Microfinance Reforms

This week, the Reserve Bank of India (India’s central banking regulator) proposed significant new microfinance regulations which would impact the majority of microfinance lending in India. There are many new regulation recommendations which they hope to have adopted as early as April 1, 2011.  Here are a few highlights: Create a new non-banking financial company… Continue reading India Regulator Proposes Radical Microfinance Reforms

Microfinance

Disinformation on Microfinance Hurts the Poor

Muhammad Yunus’ OpEd piece in Friday’s New York Times entitled Sacrificing Microcredit for Megaprofits is plainly and simply factually challenged.  Yunus advocates for changes which will result in fewer of the working poor receiving quality financial services and those who do will pay more for those services. [NOTE:  Those of you who read my blog… Continue reading Disinformation on Microfinance Hurts the Poor

Microfinance

India microfinance crisis by the numbers

Finally a reporter who actually attempts to explain the objective facts on the current microfinance crisis in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Microfinance by the Numbers by Eric Bellman Here are a few highlights: Default rates by borrowers were ~2% before the politicians intervened and now have risen to 50% since they instructed borrowers… Continue reading India microfinance crisis by the numbers

Microfinance · Poverty Reading List · Social Business

Creating a World Without Poverty book review

Creating a World Without Poverty: How Social Businesses Can Transform Our Lives by Muhammad Yunus Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has recently released his second book, Creating a World Without Poverty. The centerpiece of this book is Yunus proposal for a new kind of institution called a “social business” which is a for-profit… Continue reading Creating a World Without Poverty book review

Poverty Reading List

Banker to the Poor book review

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus Yunus is probably the most well-known microfinance practitioner having started The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in the 1970’s and led it ever since to its current state where it serves millions of micro-entrepreneurial women across Bangladesh and, through replication, in many… Continue reading Banker to the Poor book review

Microfinance · Poverty Reading List

Give Us Credit book review

Give Us Credit: How Muhammad Yunus’s Micro-Lending Revolution is Empowering Women from Bangladesh to Chicago by Alex Counts Counts heads up Grameen Foundation USA, the non-profit extension of The Grameen Bank – one of the first, large-scale successful microfinance banks based in Bangladesh. Counts shares the story of The Grameen Bank from its early inception… Continue reading Give Us Credit book review