Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, has a highly differentiated micro- and rural finance sector which has evolved over more than a century. Islamic finance has emerged in 1991, comprising Islamic commercial banks and banking units, rural banks, and financial cooperatives. In this study we...

Microfinance is thus not a recent development, and it is not just a temporary solution for poor countries. Every now developed country has its own history of microfinance. It is important to recognize this because it presents a view different from that of many in the microfinance community who...

Academic research generates scholarly publications which practitioners do not read. Practitio-ners face challenges which scholars do not address. They speak different languages and move in different worlds. In a field now known as microfinance, this paper is a personal account of taking turns...

La recherche académique génère des publications spécialisées que les opérateurs de terrain ne lisent pas. Eux-mêmes font face à des défis que les universitaires n'étudient pas. Chercheurs et praticiens parlent des langages différents et vivent dans des mondes distincts. Cet article se...

We in the community of microfinance specialists want to help alleviate poverty. We think microfinance is a useful tool. Yet, by bringing these two concerns together, we might be mixing up two diverging ends: one is poverty reduction; the other one the development of a healthy microfinance...

During the last ten years, the Government of The Lao PDR, a communist country, has taken bold steps towards a market economy, creating a policy environment for the emergence of a demand-driven system of microfinance. Such a system should be based on the cultural traditions of Laos where...