This paper presents a conceptual framework for explaining Credit Unions (CUs) loan delinquency and profitability in developing countries. It also offers an empirical estimation for a unique sample of CUs in Latin America.

This paper examines each major element of the village banking technology and how it has been liberalized so far, particularly in four leading Latin American village banking institutions: FINCA Nicaragua, Pro Mujer Bolivia, Compartamos (in Mexico), and CRECER (in Bolivia). It then analyzes how...

The current study gathers together a large database on the funding side of Latin American microfinance institutions (MFIs), providing detailed coverage of 61 regulated MFIs in nine Latin American countries with major microfinance markets. The study goes on to examine the relative costs of the...

Banks are increasingly entering into microfinance, and donors such as the IDB are increasingly helping them to do so. Despite this trend, banks continue to make a number of common mistakes in attempting to serve the microenterprise sector. A key to successfully serving this sector is to follow...

Barbados is a small, open island economy with one of the highest trade/GDP ratios in the Western Hemisphere. Because trade plays such a dominant role in the Barbadian economy, it also substantially determines the country¿s development prospects. Exports are particularly important in this...

Trade can be a powerful engine of growth. In today¿s global economy, where investment moves quickly across borders and continents, and trade barriers are rapidly coming down, a competitive exporter has much to gain. In an ever-more liberalized world economy, however, competition is also that...

Jamaica is a small, open island economy with one of the highest trade/GDP ratios in the Western Hemisphere. Because trade plays such a dominant role in the Jamaican economy, it also substantially determines the country¿s development prospects. Successful participation in the global economy...

Economic growth in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has been slow in the last two decades, averaging just 1.8 percent a year, compared to annual growth of 3.5 percent in the world economy and 4.3 percent in developing countries. Growth has varied considerably among CARICOM¿s 15 member states,...

This paper describes how to do equipment finance--leasing and lending--for mainstream microentrepreneurs, that is, for those microentrepreneurs needing approximately $50 to $2500 to purchase equipment. Specifically, this paper examines the pros and cons of the two major financing alternatives,...

On 4 July 1998, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. CARICOM is one of the oldest integration schemes in the Western Hemisphere, the largest in terms of membership, yet by far the smallest in economic and geographic terms. In the wake of its historic...