Linking banks and self-help groups has been a major program of German development cooperation since the mid-1980s. Given the involvement of GTZ in SHG banking and the outreach of that program in India, the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has proposed to study the...

In a number of European countries microfinance evolved from informal beginnings during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a type of banking of the poor, juxtaposed to the commercial and private banking sector. Almost from the onset, microfinance meant financial intermediation between...

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...

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...

Microfinance is that part of the financial sector which comprises formal and informal financial institutions, small and large, that provide small-size financial services to the lower segments of the population. Size of financial services is relative and varies widely by the economic development...

Microfinance is thus not a recent development, and it is not just a temporary solution for poor countries. 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 microfinance community who...

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...

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...

In most Asian countries including Vietnam, inadequate access of small farmers and microentepreneurs including women and the poor to effective financial services presents a major challenge. Such services must include facilities to deposit microsavings, access to microcredit for production,...

On 24-26, 1996, the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture (VBA) and the Asia Pacific Rural and Agricultural Association (APRACA) held a joint workshop in Hanoi on Alternative Mechanisms for the Promotion of Microfinance in Vietnam. The workshop was hosted by VBA and supported by the German technical...