Microfinance and the Global Financial Crisis : A Call for BASEL
For many years, microfinance has been the poster child of governments, policymakers, and international organizations with the goal of lifting millions of people out of poverty. The notion that microfinance can pursue and achieve the intertwined goa...
Main Authors: | , |
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Format: | Working Paper |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC
2015
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/01/24161049/microfinance-global-financial-crisis-call-basel http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21722 |
Summary: | For many years, microfinance has been
the poster child of governments, policymakers, and
international organizations with the goal of lifting
millions of people out of poverty. The notion that
microfinance can pursue and achieve the intertwined goals of
development and financial profitability without friction
predominated. This dual opportunity, combined with a huge
untapped market for financial services at the bottom of the
pyramid attracted large amounts of funding from
international capital markets, triggering unprecedented
levels of growth. Until the global financial crisis, the
sustainability of the resulting market growth had not been
significantly questioned. As the crisis unfolded during the
end of 2007, there seemed to be consensus among microfinance
practitioners, analysts, and other industry experts that
this crisis will be different. The microfinance industry
braced itself for anticipated liquidity crunches, increase
in costs of funds, and foreign exchange, as well as a sharp
rise in portfolio arrears. This paper will: review recent
publications that have drawn conclusions on the effects of
the global financial crisis based on empirical data
research; draw the conclusion that proper governance and
risk management systems are essential and can have avoided
many of the problems specific microfinance institutions
(MFIs) faced during the financial crisis; and highlight
Basel framework sections relevant to MFIs and demonstrate
how these can be applied to strengthen MFIs. |
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