Publication:
Microfinance Handbook: An Institutional and Financial Perspective

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (6.15 MB)
99,326 downloads
English Text (1.36 MB)
2,175 downloads
Date
1998-12
ISSN
Published
1998-12
Editor(s)
Abstract
The purpose of this handbook is to bring together in a single source guiding principles and tools that will promote sustainable microfinance and create viable institutions. It provides a comprehensive source for the design, implementation, evaluation, and management of microfinance activities. The book has three parts: part one takes a macroeconomic perspective toward general microfinance issues and is primarily non-technical. Part two narrows its focus to the provision of financial intermediation, taking a more technical approach and moving progressively toward more specific (or micro) issues. Part three, the most technical part of the handbook, focuses primarily on assessing the financial viability of microfinance institutions.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Ledgerwood, Joanna. 1998. Microfinance Handbook: An Institutional and Financial Perspective. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12383 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Transforming Microfinance Institutions : Providing Full Financial Services to the Poor
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006) White, Victoria; Ledgerwood, Joanna; Brand, Monica; Braun, Gabriela; Burand, Deborah; Hannig, Alfred; Hattel, Kelly; Robinson, Marguerite
    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 microfinance institutions to develop the capacity to become licensed and regulated to mobilize deposits from the public. This book provides guidelines for regulators to license and regulate microfinance providers, and for transforming microfinance institutions to meet the demands of two major new stakeholders -regulators and shareholders. As such, it focuses on developing the capacity of NGO microfinance institutions 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 microfinance institutions human resources, financial management, management information systems, 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.
  • Publication
    Microfinance Consensus Guidelines : Guiding Principles on Regulation and Supervision of Microfinance
    (CGAP and World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-07) Christen, Robert Peck; Lyman, Timothy R.; Rosenberg, Richard
    Many developing countries and countries with transitional economies are considering whether and how to regulate microfinance. These guiding principles are formulated for the regulation and supervision of microfinance. This document is divided into five sections. The first section of the paper discusses terminology and preliminary issues. The second section outlines areas of regulatory concern that do not call for "prudential" regulation. The next section discusses prudential treatment of microfinance and Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). The fourth section briefly looks at the challenges surrounding supervision, and the final section summarizes some key policy recommendations.
  • Publication
    Microfinance Institutions and Credit Unions in Albania : Regulatory, Supervisory and Market Development Issues
    (Washington, DC, 2008-06-17) World Bank
    The objective of this report is to present an assessment of the current legal, regulatory, and supervisory framework in Albania for microfinance, as well as an assessment of institutions rendering microfinance services (MFIs), including the Savings and Credit Associations (SCAs) and credit unions (CUs), to identify future development priorities. Economic conditions have improved in Albania in recent years, but a significant percentage of the population is still considered below the poverty level. The report lists future development priorities for the SCAs and MFIs, emphasizing poverty reduction through microfinancing. Several MFIs, and one CU, expressed some desire to borrow from the World Bank. The report finds this promising, as long as it does not crowd out commercial sources that serve to integrate MFIs, CUs, and SCAs into the larger financial sector. The growth of SCAs might be enhanced by further consolidation of smaller SCAs into larger SCAs. Mergers based on joint objectives and bounds can expand the geographical coverage and clientele base, facilitate the increase of cash flows and access to capital, and achieve economies of scale in view of reducing fixed costs. Albania also wishes to obtain a banking license and focus exclusively on the microfinance market. A tax exemption enables CUs and SCAs to build up capital through retained earnings. Eliminating their tax exemption would either reduce their capital, or require that CUs replace the taxed earnings with other means of capitalization to maintain the same capital reserves. The report recommends that the Bank of Albania (BoA) should continue to work with the CUs on consolidating and strengthening the SCAs.
  • Publication
    Experiences of Microfinance Institutions Serving Very Small to Small Enterprises in Latin America
    (Washington, DC, 2014-07) International Finance Corporation
    Very small enterprises (VSEs) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) represent a broad and heterogeneous segment, often underserved by formal financial institutions. They are generally informal and often family businesses. The financial needs of these enterprises are typically overlooked by “downscaling” banks, which find larger and often more formal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be a more natural market for their products and services. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are starting to move upmarket to serve SMEs, and in particular, VSEs within this segment. However, they use varying definitions, methodologies and products to do so and to date there has been little research or documentation of their experiences. This report highlights the results of a recent study of the existing practices in Latin America of MFIs serving VSEs, where VSEs are considered to be those businesses with financing needs of between US$7,000 and US$30,000. It is a starting point for an institution considering entering the segment, or for one that finds itself having grown into the segment “organically” but with a view to strengthen its position. It includes several checklists for MFIs interested in expanding upmarket into the VSE space, as well as more detailed discussions and examples of the most relevant points.
  • Publication
    A Framework for Regulating Microfinance Institutions : The Experience in Ghana and the Philippines
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002-01) Gallardo, Joselito
    An earlier Policy Research Working Paper (Hennie van Greuning, Joselito Gallardo, and Bikki Randhawa, "A Framework for Regulating Microfinance Institutions," WPS 2061, February 1999) presented a regulatory framework that identifies thresholds in financial intermediation activities that trigger a requirement for a microfinance institution to satisfy external or mandatory guidelines-a tiered approach to regulation and prudential supervision. The model focuses on risk-taking activities of microfinance institutions that must be managed and prudentially regulated. The author reports on the results of the field testing and assessment of the tiered approach, focusing on the experience of Ghana and the Philippines. The two countries both have a wide range of informal, semi-formal, and formal institutions providing financial services to the poor, but differ in how they regulate financial intermediation activities by microfinance providers. In his assessment and a comparative analysis, the author focuses on key issues in the regulatory and supervisory environment for microfinance-and in the legal system and judicial processes-being addressed by government authorities and microfinance stakeholders in both countries. He gives particular attention to the thresholds at which intermediation activities become subject to prudential regulation and regulatory standards for capitalization and capital adequacy, asset quality and provisioning for nonperforming loans, and liquidity management. seeks to identify the key elements and characteristics of the microfinance regulatory experience of Ghana and the Philippines and to draw the lessons that may be useful for other countries interested in establishing a regulatory environment conducive to the development of sustainable microfinance institutions. The experience of Ghana and the Philippines shows that a transparent, inclusive regulatory framework is indispensable for enabling microfinance institutions to maintain market specialization and to pursue institutional development that leads to sustainability. Clear pathways for institutional transformation facilitate the integration of microfinance institutions into the formal financial system.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System : A Handbook for Development Practitioners
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004) Zall Kusek, Jody; Rist, Ray C.
    An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), civil society, international organizations, and donors are among the stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and real results have increased, there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects. This handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. These steps begin with a 'readiness assessment' and take the practitioner through the design, management, and importantly, the sustainability of such systems. The handbook describes each step in detail, the tasks needed to complete each one, and the tools available to help along the way.
  • Publication
    Africa's Future, Africa's Challenge : Early Childhood Care and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
    (Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008) Garcia, Marito; Pence, Alan; Evans, Judith L.
    This book seeks to achieve a balance, describing challenges that are being faced as well as developments that are underway. It seeks a balance in terms of the voices heard, including not just voices of the North commenting on the South, but voices from the South, and in concert with the North. It seeks to provide the voices of specialists and generalists, of those from international and local organizations, from academia and the field. It seeks a diversity of views and values. Such diversity and complexity are the reality of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) today. The major focus of this book is on SSA from the Sahel south. Approximately 130 million children between birth and age 6 live in SSA. Every year 27 million children are born, and every year 4.7 million children under age 5 die. Rates of birth and of child deaths are consistently higher in SSA than in any other part of the world; the under-5 mortality rate of 163 per 1,000 is twice that of the rest of the developing world and 30 times that of industrialized countries (UNICEF 2006). Of the children who are born, 65 percent will experience poverty, 14 million will be orphans affected by HIV/AIDS directly and within their families and one-third will experience exclusion because of their gender or ethnicity.
  • Publication
    Zimbabwe
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-03-01) World Bank
    This report presents an assessment of Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector disaster risk and management capacity. The findings indicate that Zimbabwe is highly exposed to agricultural risks and has limited capacity to manage risk at various levels. The report shows that disaster-related shocks along Zimbabwe’s agricultural supply chains directly translate to volatility in agricultural GDP. Such shocks have a substantial impact on economic growth, food security, and fiscal balance. When catastrophic disasters occur, the economy absorbs the shocks, without benefiting from any instruments that transfer the risk to markets and coping ability. The increasing prevalence of ‘shock recovery-shock’ cycles impairs Zimbabwe’s ability to plan and pursue a sustainable development path. The findings presented here confirm that it is highly pertinent for Zimbabwe to strengthen the capacity to manage risk at various levels, from the smallholder farmer, to other participants along the supply chain, to consumers (who require a reliable, safe food supply), and ultimately to the government to manage natural disasters. The assessment provides the following evidence on sources of risks and plausible risk management solutions. It is our hope that the report contributes to action by the Government of Zimbabwe to adopt a proactive and integrated risk management strategy appropriate to the current structure of the agricultural sector.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2017
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30) World Bank Group
    Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 1984
    (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984) World Bank
    Long-term needs and sustained effort are underlying themes in this year's report. As with most of its predecessors, it is divided into two parts. The first looks at economic performance, past and prospective. The second part is this year devoted to population - the causes and consequences of rapid population growth, its link to development, why it has slowed down in some developing countries. The two parts mirror each other: economic policy and performance in the next decade will matter for population growth in the developing countries for several decades beyond. Population policy and change in the rest of this century will set the terms for the whole of development strategy in the next. In both cases, policy changes will not yield immediate benefits, but delay will reduce the room for maneuver that policy makers will have in years to come.