Regulation allows microfinance institutions to evolve more fully into banks, particularly for institutions aiming to … draw on a new database that combines high-quality financial data on 245 of the world’s largest microfinance institutions … profitability. The pattern is consistent with the notion that profit-oriented microfinance institutions absorb the cost of …

microfinance institutions. They find evidence that competition matters. Greater bank penetration in the overall economy is … lending contracts (rather than the group lending methods favored by microfinance nongovernmental organizations). The analysis …

This paper describes important trade-offs that microfinance practitioners, donors, and regulators navigate. Drawing … evidence from large, global surveys of microfinance institutions, the authors find a basic tension between meeting social goals … and maximizing financial performance. For example, non-profit microfinance institutions make far smaller loans on average …

impact of Equity Bank-a leading private commercial bank focusing on microfinance-on access to banking in Kenya. Unlike other …

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 …

In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the presence and growth of greenfield microfinance institutions in … Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper uses regressions to benchmark those African greenfields relative to other microfinance … comparable to the top microfinance institutions, and substantially increased their lending to women. The effects were especially …

Microfinance institutions have proved the possibility of providing reliable banking services to poor customers. Their … second aim is to do so in a commercially-viable way. This paper analyzes the tensions and opportunities of microfinance as it … embraces the market, drawing on a data set that includes 346 of the world's leading microfinance institutions and covers nearly …

Microfinance institutions have proved the possibility of providing reliable banking services to poor customers. Their … second aim is to do so in a commercially-viable way. This paper analyzes the tensions and opportunities of microfinance as it … embraces the market, drawing on a data set that includes 346 of the world's leading microfinance institutions and covers nearly …

In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the presence and growth of greenfield microfinance institutions in … Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper uses regressions to benchmark those African greenfields relative to other microfinance … comparable to the top microfinance institutions, and substantially increased their lending to women. The effects were especially …