Microfinance for Bankers and Investors: Understanding the Opportunities
and Challenges of the Market at the Bottom of the Pyramid
Socially Responsible Success
As an industry with annual growth rates of 30 percent over the past six
years, microfinance is becoming one of the best avenues for achieving what every investor
wants: sustainable investment opportunities for long-term growth and dramatic increases in
market share.
Technological advances make it cheaper to reach more and more customers. The purchasing
power of low-income people is increasing.
These and other factors make the time ripe for the private sector to invest in the growth
of the millions of people at the bottom of the pyramid.
Microfinance for Bankers and Investors is the first guidebook for entering and
profiting from this emerging market.
This practical road map offers:
- Facts and figures demonstrating the outstanding opportunities in this
sector
- Success stories from Citibank, Visa, Sequoia Capital, and other major
companies
- Best practices and key insights from today’s top players in microfinance
The impressive global growth of microfinance is one of the few bright spots in
today’s difficult financial-sector landscape. Microfinance for Bankers and Investors
provides businesses an opportunity to engage in a double bottom-line business and provides
the insights they need to tap into a market that has yet to reveal its full potential.
Table of Contents
Preface vii
Introduction xiii
Part 1 Understanding Clients, the Market, and the Opportunities
1 The BOP Market Up Close (and Personal) 3
2 Who Serves the BOP Market-and Who Doesn't? 11
3 Four Critical Challenges in the BOP Market 18
4 Products for the BOP Market 27
5 Three Products: Insurance, Housing Finance, and Remittances 34
Part 2 Models and Corporate Choices
6 Corporate Choices 47
7 Commercial Banks as Microlenders 57
8 Partners at the Last Mile: Retailers, Banking Agents, and Insurance Companies 66
9 Models of Financing Inclusive Finance 77
Part 3 The Emerging Industry of Inclusive Finance
10 Building the Infrastructure for Inclusive Finance: The Enabling Environment 95
11 Credit Bureaus and Credit Scoring 103
12 Last-Mile Technologies 111
13 The Technological Base: Payment Systems and Banking Software 120
14 Building the Market for Investing in Microfinance 126
Part 4 Socially Responsible Returns
15 Approaches to Social Responsibility 139
16 Client Protection and Proconsumer Inclusive Finance 148
17 Measuring the Social Bottom Line 158
Cases 1 Banking Models
ICICI Bank: Shaping Inclusive Finance in India 167
Citigroup Fosters Commercial Relationships with Microfinance Institutions 175
Banco Pichincha and the Service Company Model 181
Banco Bradesco: Twenty-First Century Postal Banking 188
Cases 2 New Players: Retailers, Insurers, and Telecoms
Banco Azteca: A Retailer Surprises Mexico's Financial Giants 195
Vodafone: A Bold Move into Financial Services for Kenya's Poor 204
G-Cash: Filipinos Text Their Way to Mobile Banking 209
Cases 3 Industry Developers
Visa: SocialBenefit Systems That Benefit Everyone 219
Temenos: Creating Core Banking Systems for Microfinance 226
Creditinfo: First Credit Bureau in Kazakhastan 231
Cases 4 Financing Models
MF Analytics and Citibank: The Securitization of BRAC Loans 239
Credit Suisse: Bringing Compartamos to the Market with a Successful IPO 245
Sequoia Capital: Private Equity and Indian Microfinance 252
Cases 5 Social Responsibility
ANZ Bank: If the Mountain Will Not Come to Us, Then We Must Go to the Mountain 261
Equity Bank Goes to Schools 266
Triodos Bank and the Global Reporting Initiative 272
Acknowledgments 279
Endnotes 281
References 299
Index 317
352 pages, Hardcover
