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 analyzes the current practices of four leading Latin American Village Banking programs (VBIs): FINCA Nicaragua, Pro Mujer Bolivia, Compartamos (in Mexico), and CRECER (in Bolivia). By making a detailed examination and analysis of the major aspects of the village banking methodology...

This paper discusses microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the Caribbean. It argues that the reason they have lagged is fundamentally explained by factors internal to the MFIs, rather than external to them. The paper introduces four Caribbean MFIs, two with track records of low loan delinquency...

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...

This paper marshals substantial arguments and data to support the contention that improving the access of micro and small enterprises to financial services could have an important salutary impact on a country's income distribution. To demonstrate this, the paper shows first that many poor own or...

The purpose of this document is to define and discuss a minimum set of core project monitoring and evaluation indicators that should be collected in all or nearly all projects approved under the IDB's Social Entrepreneurship Program (SEP). The document is aimed at those IDB and counterpart...

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...

The Opportunities for the Majority Initiative (OMJ) was originally set up for three years as a time-bound pilot initiative. The OMJ team has worked diligently to test the Base of the Pyramid model and develop the OMJ portfolio, and from that standpoint the initiative has been successful....

This evaluation reviews the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the IDB's Program with Ecuador for 2007-2011. The period was characterized by an important political and institutional shift in Ecuador, embodied in the new Constitution of September 2008. Working within the framework...