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.

Following the recent global financial crisis there is a growing interest in alternative finance – and microfinance in particular – as new instruments for providing financial services in a socially responsible way or as an alternative to traditional banking. Nonetheless, correspondingly there is also a lack of clarity about how to regulate alternative financial methods particularly in light of the financial crisis’ lessons on regulatory failure and shadow banking’s risks. This book considers microfinance from a legal and regulatory perspective. Microfinance is the provision of a wide range of financial services, particularly credit but also remittances, savings, to low-income people or financially excluded people. It combines a business structure with social inspiration, often resorts to technological innovations to lower costs (Fintech: e.g. crowdfunding and mobile banking) and merges with traditional local experiences (e.g. financial cooperatives and Islamic finance), this further complicating the regulatory picture. The book describes some of the unique dimensions of microfinance and the difficulties that this can cause for regulators, through a comparative analysis of selected European Union (EU) countries’ regimes. The focus is in fact on the EU legal framework, with some references to certain developing world experiences where relevant. The book assesses the impact and validity of current financial regulation principles and rules, in light of the most recent developments and trends in financial regulation in the wake of the financial crisis and compares microfinance with traditional banking. The book puts forward policy recommendations for regulators and policy makers to help address the challenges and opportunities offered by microfinance.

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A+, University of Nairobi (Main Campus), course: International Business, language: English, abstract: There are a number of key principles of microfinance regulations. However, empirical research indicates that some key principles such as governance, and capital adequacy should be the main focus of the microfinance regulation and supervision. CGAP (2012) developed the Consensus guideline for the supervision and regulation of the microfinance institutions (MFIs). CGAP indicated that the MFIs should have a higher capital adequacy ratios as compared to the commercial banks since the microloans issued by the MFIs have insufficient security and the borrowers main motivation to repay the loans is the expectation that they would receive more loans. The MFIs are at a higher risk of loan delinquency contagion that can lead to a significant increase in the de-capitalization. Berger agreed with the above view by stating that MFIs need to have minimum capital adequacy as a means of helping the organizations to overcome the volatilities. The researcher thus concurs that capital adequacy should be a key principle in the regulation and supervision of the MFIs due to the volatilities associated with low collateral quality in the MFI loans, and increased risk of loan repayment delinquency. However, the principle should only apply to the MFIs that offer uncollateralized loans or in the cases where the security is not adequate to effectively cover the loan.

Abstract: The authors investigate the microfinance regulatory regimes in Benin, Ghana, and Tanzania, with a view to identifying key issues and lessons on how the overall regulatory framework affects integration of microfinance institutions into the financial system. The authors find that recognizing different tiers of both regulated and unregulated institutions in a financial structure facilitates financial deepening and outreach to otherwise underserved groups in urban and rural areas. That environment promotes sustainable microfinance under shared performance standards and encourages regulatory authorities to develop appropriate prudential regulations and staff capacity. Case studies of the three countries raise important issues on promoting microfinance development vis-à-vis regulating them. Laws to regulate activities other than intermediation of public deposits into loans can result in disproportionately restrictive and unmanageable standards, even as dynamic microfinance sectors have emerged without conducive regulatory regimes. The authors use the three countries' regulatory experiences to highlight the importance of differentiating when prudential supervision is warranted and when regulatory oversight suffices, and to identify the agencies to carry out regulation. They address an important issue that has received scant attention, measuring and paying for the costs of regulating microfinance, and the need to build technical capacity of supervisory and regulatory staff.

Handbook of Microfinance addresses the gap between clients who are benefiting from access to financial services via MFIs, and the potential market, which remains underserved or untapped. This gap can be attributed to a "mismatch" between what consumers, or potential clients, demand and what MFIs offer in terms of financial products. The scope of the book is wide. It includes successes and failures, main challenges and debates, methodologies for impact evaluation via random trials, leading trends in Asia versus Latin America, main efforts in Africa, the importance of value chains in Central America, ethical and gender issues, savings, microinsurance, governance, commercialization trends and the potential advantages and disadvantages of it. Lastly it features main lessons from informal finance and 19th-century credit cooperatives addressing the above-mentioned mismatch.

How does a country's legal and regulatory framework affect the sustainability of microfinance? Does a tiered approach to regulation help to integrate microfinance into the formal financial system? And are there lessons to be learned from the experience of Ghana and the Philippines with a tiered approach?