This paper marshals substantial arguments and data to support the contention that improving the access of micro and small enterprises to financial services could have an important salutary impact on a country's income distribution. To demonstrate this, the paper shows first that many poor own or...

This paper presents a retrospective review of several key areas of work of the Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Division (CMF) of the Inter-American Development Bank. Presented with each chapter as an independent piece, the paper analyzes the operations portfolio of CMF from 2006 to...

En esta edición de Microempresa se presentan dos artículos principales. En el primero, se examina por qué siendo las instituciones microfinancieras (IMF) una oportunidad atractiva para los inversores privados, son tan pocos los inversores financieros y sociales privados que proveen fondos a...

El presente número de Microempresa ofrece dos artículos principales. En el primero se analizan modelos alternativos de esquemas garantías para instituciones microfinancieras (IFM). Una de las dificultades generalizadas de la mayoría de las IFMs es acceder a fuentes comerciales de...

This book presents but a few examples of the many Bank-financed productive activities carried out by the people of the region, and pays tribute to the women and men who, in their efforts to succeed, daily renew their hopes for a better future. In addition, the book pays tribute to the...

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of public credit lines in promoting the performances of Brazilian firms. We focus on the impact of the credit lines managed by BNDES and FINEP in fostering growth measured in terms of employment, labor productivity and export. For this purpose, we use a...

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have been successful in providing credit to millions of low-income borrowers in groups previously excluded from formal financial services, but they often charge interest rates that many claim are excessive. We examine microfinance interest rates and their...

Using borrower-level data from FINCA, one of Peru's leading microfinance institutions (MFIs), this paper evaluates the effect on borrowers' access to credit of FINCA's decision to share information on individual outstanding debt records (positive information) as well as group default records...

Few commercial banks have engaged in profitable microfinance lending despite repeated attempts by donor agencies to entice their entry. The case of Banco de la Empresa, a Latin American private bank, illustrates how penetration of the microenterprise market segment could evolve. This paper...

This study was prepared for the Financial Services and Poverty Reduction research project and was presented at the conference with the same name held at Bank headquarters in September of 2004. It first establishes the considerable welfare cost borne by the region's poor when facing uncovered...