Research on MFI performance is still in its infancy. MFIs are hybrid organizations with dual objectives. Performance studies in microfinance are therefore less straightforward compared to performance studies in traditional banking research. This book contains new MFI performance research by top scholars from across the globe.

Critics argue that there has been a trend among Microfinance Institutions (MFI) to focus on profitability in order to stay financially sustainable. This made some institutions neglect the social mission of microfinancing. In this paper I intend to examine if empirical evidence supports this so called mission drift hypothesis as well as other claims in this context. Using the global panel data set of the MIX (Microfinance Information Exchange), which gathers from 1995 to 2010 and contains up to 1400 institutions with a high variety of organizational forms, I was able to identify a world-wide mission drift effect in their social goal of reaching out the poorest part of the population. Furthermore, I find that, on average, the outreach of an MFI has a significant negative influence on its short and long term financial performance. Despite that, I eventually proved that the probability that an MFI worsens its social performance substantially increases if its profitability has decreased in the previous years.

Since the 1980s when the microfinance revolution began, much has been accomplished, but the field became more refined in the 1990s as a result of shifts in paradigms, strategies, and development practices. This volume addresses the three policy objectives that now occupy those who wish to use credit as a development tool: financial sustainability of microfinance institutions, outreach to the poor, and welfare impact. Inevitable tradeoffs exist among these objectives, and the book advances an analytical framework that assists students of and experts in microfinance to identify the tradeoffs and synergies at the institutional level and in the policy environment. The book features a wealth of empirical data and innovative analytical studies, and critically discusses the role of public support for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in light of the social costs and benefits generated by such financial systems. The book is organized into five parts. The first discusses the demand for and access to financial services by the poor, emphasizing that demand-oriented, pro-poor financial services are crucial in reaching the poor. The second is concerned with two of the criteria used to evaluate MFIs—outreach and financial sustainability. The third features innovative econometric studies seeking to evaluate the impact of MFIs at the household level. The fourth looks at the role of both public- and private-sector institutions in developing sustainable financial systems. And the fifth summarizes implications for policy and research. Given the lack of sound, empirical literature on microfinance, this volume is sure to advance knowledge and research methodology in the field.

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide a public good: they provide income-creating financial services to un-bankable people. If MFIs create and deepen markets where none existed before, there may be a case for public support. While subsidies are generally not favorably seen in financial sector development, being difficult to target and possibly distorting the local financial market, there may be situations where the net social benefits of micro-finance may exceed those of not doing anything and of alternative anti-poverty programs. Under such circumstances longer-term public support may be justifiable. This book is based on a study of forty-five MFIs carried out by ILO, in partnership with the Universities of Geneva and Cambridge. The application of factor analysis and cluster analysis shows that MFIs form clusters in terms of social and performance. Within each cluster there is one institution that is most efficient on both scores. Public support should ensure that the relative efficiency of MFIs is enhanced, it should not prod MFIs to modify their mission and position between poverty outreach and profitability.

The purpose of the 'Microfinance Handbook' is to bring together in a single source guiding principles and tools that will promote sustainable microfinance and create viable institutions.

This book explores for the first time the world of micro-finance, Chinese startups, and the digitalization of the Chinese economy. Through the cases such as the Ant Financial Services Group, CFPA Microfinance, micro-financial projects of China Minsheng Bank, Meixing in Nanchong, and more, this book introduces the practical exploration in the recent years from the perspectives of microfinance, financing of small and medium sized enterprises, digital inclusive finance, and credit. From the perspective of management, it especially integrates an enterprise’s task, vision, and value into the design of organization process, deeply explores how to realized the double bottom lines of social and financial performances, manifests how microfinance’s marginal cost is reduced by digital finance such as data, internet, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and the advantages of digital finance in providing convenient, low-cost, and touchable service, and discusses its huge technological bonus to small-amount, decentralized, and large-quantity microfinance. This book will be of value to journalists, economists and researchers.

In response to a clear need by low-income people to gain access to the full range of financial services including savings, a growing number of microfinance NGOs are seeking guidelines to transform from credit-focused microfinance organizations to regulated deposit-taking financial intermediaries. In response to this trend, this book presents a practical 'how-to' manual for MFIs to develop the capacity to become licensed and regulated to mobilize deposits from the public. 'Transforming Microfinance Institutions' provides guidelines for regulators to license and regulate microfinance providers, and for transforming MFIs to meet the demands of two major new stakeholders regulators and shareholders. As such, it focuses on developing the capacity of NGO MFIs to mobilize and intermediate voluntary savings. Drawing from worldwide experience, it outlines how to manage the transformation process and address major strategic and operational issues inherent in transformation including competitive positioning, business planning, accessing capital and shareholders, and how to 'transform' the MFI's human resources, financial management, MIS, internal controls, and branch operations. Case studies then provide examples of developing a new regulatory tier for microfinance, and how a Ugandan NGO transformed to become a licensed financial intermediary. This book will be invaluable to regulators and microfinance NGOs contemplating institutional transformation and will be of tremendous use to donors and technical support agencies supporting MFIs in their transformation.