That has to be uppermost in our minds as we think about what microfinance means. For IFAD, the finance issue is crucial to the task of reducing rural poverty. We do not insist on any particular institutional model. The demand for financial services is very diverse even among the poor, and we...

Academic research generates scholarly publications which practitioners do not read. Practitio-ners face challenges which scholars do not address. They speak different languages and move in different worlds. In a field now known as microfinance, this paper is a personal account of taking turns...

La recherche académique génère des publications spécialisées que les opérateurs de terrain ne lisent pas. Eux-mêmes font face à des défis que les universitaires n'étudient pas. Chercheurs et praticiens parlent des langages différents et vivent dans des mondes distincts. Cet article se...

The provision of financial services through mobile phones is a powerful tool to foster financial inclusion in developing countries. Yet, it raises important regulatory questions. Given the vulnerability of the vast majority of potential customers of these services, one of the most pressing...

Information asymmetries make it difficult for banks to assess accurately whether specific entrepreneurs are able and/or willing to repay their loans. This leads to implicit interest rate ceilings, i.e. banks refuse to increase their interest rates beyond this ceiling as this would lower their...