Risk management in microfinance complex because of the absence or near absence of traditional risk mitigation mechanisms like collateral and guarantees, as well as the high volumes of cash transactions conducted in remote locations. Moreover, many MFIs are mission-driven organisations, and therefore prone to strategic and political risks that are unique to them and the clients they serve. As MFIs continue to grow and expand, serving more customers and attracting more mainstream investment capital and funds, they need to strengthen their internal capacities to identify and anticipate potential risks, and thus to avoid unexpected losses and surprises. This Note focuses on understanding the risk function and its difference from internal audit. It also looks at different types of risks, as well as understanding some basic risk terms, risk identification and risk prioritisation.
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Client Protection Lessons for the Microfinance Sector
This Note explains how clients perceive ‘client protection’ and what the stakeholders can do to fulfil clients’ expectations for protection on financial matters. Based on client inputs, financial institutions can prioritise their efforts to implement CPPs. Ranking of CPPs can highlight what really matters to clients and accordingly management systems can be put in place. Integrating clients’ preferences within the customer service framework can help MFIs improve their performance.
E/M-Banking for Financial Inclusion in India: Opportunities and Challenges
In 2012 Ignacio Mas worked with MSC to look at the state of digital financial services in India, the type of products that poor people want, and the role of microfinance institutions/SHGs in digital financial services systems. Ignacio also ran a training for all MSC staff, and we then asked him to record some of his thoughts on digital financial services systems and not just in India but also worldwide. In this video he answers the following questions:
What are the opportunities offered by digital financial services systems in India – for poor people and for the government?
How do we respond to the challenge of scale in India?
How do we create real value for poor customers in India?
Creating an Effective Marketing Strategy
In this video Graham A. N. Wright, Group Managing Director, MicroSave, talks about the need for marketing in E-/M Banking. He emphasises that marketing needs to work on educating customers and create trust and awareness for product uptake. Following his presentation, M Yasmina McCarty, Mobile Money for the Unbanked Senior Manager, GSMA, highlights the challenges faced while marketing mobile money and driving customer usage. She throws light on best practices as they have emerged for mobile network operators as they address these challenges.
Saddling Up a Dead Horse: Financial Inclusion in India
The no-frills accounts (NFA) focussed approach to financial inclusion has so far been largely ineffectual. What is really needed is a change of perspective. Providers need to think of the BC model as a “distributed banking model” rather than as a “financial inclusion drive” to meet regulatory compulsions or social objectives. In a branch of a nationalised bank in India, where all credit and savings products were being delivered through the BCs, there was not just an increase in business due to what was directly brought in by the BCs, but even an increase in regular walk-in business. Financial inclusion will naturally follow the establishment of an efficient, distributed banking channel.
Responsible Finance
The Responsible Finance is the ninth publication under the Optimising Performance and Efficiency (OPE) Series. The OPE Series brings together key insights and ideas on specific topics, with clear objective of providing microfinance practitioners with practical and actionable advice.
This Responsible Finance Booklet brings together a set of brief publications which dredge into Client Protection Principles, poverty measurement and promoting client centric delivery models which lead to sustainable development. MicroSave’s rich sectoral expertise and extensive knowledge database of publications in the booklet highlights many of the opportunities, needs, issues and challenges of the poor.