The principles of Islamic finance are laid down in the sharia, Islamic law. Islamic finance, comprising financial transactions in banks and non-bank financial institutions formal and non-formal financial institutions, is based on the concept of a social order of brotherhood and solidarity. The...

Only relief achieves short-term poverty reduction, but is ineffective in the long run. Sustainable poverty reduction can only be attained through well-designed long-term development measures. For example, Indonesia is considered one of the most successful countries with regard to poverty...

Microfinance comprises microsavings, microcredit and other financial services such as microinsurance and microleasing. Small amounts of savings are col-lected: daily, weekly, at market days, after harvests or irregularly. They are then transformed into microloans which are repaid in...

Forays into Islamic microfinance have been few and scattered and of limited outreach. Some have been mandated by the state, but lack popular demand, as in Iran; other have emerged in response to popular demand, but lack regulatory support by the state, as in Syria. This has provided the...

The policy of development through subsidized credit has largely failed. Development policy is presently being reoriented towards savings mobilization supplement by credit programs based on personal savings. Formal financial markets are ineffective in mobilizing savings in Third World countries...

Values are to a society what character is to a person: it reveals his true inner self, yet is difficult to describe in exact terms. Moreover, a person's character may show in his actions in various, sometimes contradictory ways so that it may be difficult to induce a person's character from his...

How to develop in third world countries a sector of viable financial institutions with sustainable financial services for the whole populace including the poor? During the 90s an answer to that question is being sought in the field of microfinance, which comprises formal and nonformal financial...

Microfinance is not a recent development, and neither is the development of regulation and supervision of microfinance institutions (MFIs). 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 case of BRI is evidence that, in a deregulated policy environment, the microfinance section of a government-owned bank can (a) be transformed into a highly profitable, self-reliant financial intermediary; and (b) turn into a major microfinance provider, offering carefully crafted...

Informal financial institutions (IFIs), among them the ubiquitous rotating savings and credit associations, are of ancient origin. Owned and self-managed by local people, poor and non-poor, they are self-help organizations which mobilize their own resources, cover their costs and finance their...