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The real promise of regulatory technology in financial inclusion
Financial authorities could someday run digitally, but getting there is not going to be easy. In many countries, regulators today often use fax machines, let alone cloud-based software and analytics. And yet, the future of the financial sector depends on modernizing regulatory authorities.
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- Uncategorized
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‘Like Using a Wall to Stop a Runaway Bus’: Cambodian Microcredit is Overheated, But Rate Caps Aren’t the Answer
Daniel Rozas says a proposed interest rate cap of 18 percent on most new microloans in Cambodia will, if enforced, hurt the very people it ostensibly seeks to protect. Taking issue with a recent post by Milford Bateman, Rozas argues the cap would create a clear preference for certain types of lending and could heighten problems created by Cambodia's saturated microcredit market.
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- Uncategorized
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Demonetization brought out the best in Indian microfinance clients
Five months after demonetization, the uncertainty has started to fade.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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- microfinance, regulations
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Don’t Fear the Rate Cap: Why Cambodia’s Microcredit Regulations Aren’t Such a Bad Thing
The Cambodian government recently shocked its microcredit industry by capping interest rates at 18 percent – about half the current rate of most loans. Many analysts sympathetic to the industry have strongly criticized the move, but Milford Bateman argues it's actually an important step in protecting the poor – and resolving an "existential crisis" in a sector plagued by unsustainable growth and high over-indebtedness.
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- Uncategorized
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Will Move to Cap Microfinance Interest Rates Backfire in Cambodia?
Some analysts say the move is unlikely to help reduce poverty, and could throw the country’s microfinance system into disarray.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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- microfinance, regulations
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Social Business Roundup: A $1 Smartphone, the Upshot of Disparity and the Quizzing of Presidents
If you manufacture a phone that comes with apps advertising to low-income consumers, can you sell it for as little as $1? The folks at SocialEco think so. Other items NextBillion's editors came across for this week's Roundup included a concentration on wealth concentration, an unhappy birthday for M-Pesa, plus a presidential Q that will hopefully result in an A.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Find Good Partners and Don’t Quit: Lessons from a Water-Ag Innovator
Bart A.J. de Jonge and Si Technologies came up with a way to protect farmers around the world and their crops against increasingly common droughts that devastate local communities. He wanted to get the product in the hands of hands of millions of subsistence farmers quickly, but it took years, for a variety of reasons. Here, he offers advice to other social entrepreneurs, including this: "Change is a long haul, but don’t give up."
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- Agriculture
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A Tale of Four IPOs: Is Public Investment in Microfinance Becoming OK Again?
Initial public offerings have long been a controversial topic in microfinance, and rightly so. The early IPOs of Compartamos and SKS Microfinance made a lot of money for investors and turbocharged the sector's growth, but also sparked hyper commercialization and debt crises that rocked the industry. But last year, two Indian MFIs had successful IPOs that have garnered a much more positive reception. We spoke with Daniel Rozas of the European Microfinance Platform and Anna Kanze of Grassroots Capital Management about how these four offerings differed, and what they could mean for the future of public investment in microfinance, in this podcast.
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- Investing
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