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...

In the transition process from financial repression to a prudentially deregulated financial system, an increasing number of developing countries are becoming concerned about access of the rural and urban masses to microfinance. Only viable institutions with sound practices, which mobilize their...

Regulating the financial system through restrictions on foreign exchange, interest rate controls and constraints imposed on financial institutions have been among the principal instruments of financial repression in low-income countries. In recent years, many have taken to deregulation, but...