Using the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, we investigate the prevalence and correlates of collateralized borrowing in … 131 countries between 2005-2017. Overall, 77 percent of loans require collateral, and the median loan-to-collateral value … is 60 percent. Small firms and loans from non-bank financial institutions are less often associated with collateral. When …

Using firm-level surveys for up to 73 countries, this paper explores the impact of introducing collateral registries … introduced collateral registries for movable assets against three control groups: firms in all countries that did not introduce a … for movable assets, and firms in countries that undertook other types of collateral reforms but did not set up registries …

Microfinance is generally seen as a way to fix credit markets and unleash the productive capacities of poor people who … are dependent on self-employment. The microfinance sector has grown quickly since the 1990s, paving the way for other …, generating a backlash against microfinance. This paper reconsiders the claims about microfinance, highlighting the diversity in …

This paper describes a new index of the quality of the business environment for microfinance institutions (the Global … Microscope on the Microfinance Business Environment). Regressions are used to validate the index by linking it and its … subcomponents to microfinance outcomes. The main findings are that the components of the index related to the supporting …

Mobile banking is growing at a remarkable speed around the world. In the process it is creating considerable …

Recent evidence suggests only modest social and economic impacts of microfinance. Favorable cost-benefit ratios then … depend on low costs. This paper uses proprietary data on 1,335 microfinance institutions between 2005 and 2009, jointly … serving 80.1 million borrowers, to calculate the costs of microfinance and other elements of the microfinance business model …

In light of the recent microfinance crisis in South India, government-run institutions in general, and primary … (microfinance institutions, informal lenders, etc.) before repaying their primary agricultural credit cooperative loans. The authors …