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  Topic Overview
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   Added: 05 February 2003
   Updated: 18 November 2005
  KO Overview
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   Added: 30 July 2004
   Updated: 14 July 2005
 
Service provision    
        
Financial intermediation is an important process through which funds are channelled from suppliers to prospective users. In most countries a diversity of institutions, instruments and markets have evolved to provide financial intermediation services. These include formal institutions such as banks, semi-formal institutions such as cooperatives and informal providers such as traders and moneylenders.

Providing financial services in rural areas is a particular challenge as agriculture has unique characteristics of dependence on natural resources, long production cycles and vulnerability to risks, while scattered populations greatly increase operating costs. This Learning Centre aims to bring together resources that can help financial service providers to operate efficiently in this environment and increase their outreach in a sustainable manner.

You can browse for resources under the following sub-headings:

  • Banks: commercial, rural, agricultural and a special sub-topic on Islamic banking
  • Financial products: information on deposit, insurance, lease, loan and payment products, and product development
  • Governance: the role of directors and relationships with management
  • Informal mechanisms: savings clubs, self help groups, moneylenders
  • Management: accounts, costing and pricing, debt recovery, human resources, lending procedures, risk management and more
  • Member-owned institutions: cooperatives, credit unions, financial service associations and village banking
  • Microfinance institutions: regulated, unregulated, NGOs and other non-bank financial institutions
  • Mission and impact: information about researching target markets and how to measure impact and client satisfaction
  • Non-banking services: the issues surrounding the provision of business development and other forms of advice
  • Rural outreach: looking at ways of reducing costs in remote area operations and supporting livelihood development
  • Supply chain finance: contract farming and other inter-linking arrangements

Here at the top level you can find a few documents that provide good general overviews and glossaries of terms.

  
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TitlePractical Microfinance
Author/ EditorHarper, M.
Content Language(s)English
Type of DocumentTraining manual
Abstract / DescriptionThis book has been written to help people provide effective training to those who work or plan to work in the field of micro finance. It is a training guide with detailed step by step descriptions for 22 sessions. These sessions can be used on their own, in part or integrated with other material, or as the basis of a complete course on micro finance. The session topics are:
  1. New paradigm micro-finance’ – what is it?
  2. Introduction to financial accounts and analysis.
  3. Field visits to micro-enterprises.
  4. Rates of return and the cost of money.
  5. Visits to micro-finance groups.
  6. Financial analysis of a micro-finance institution.
  7. Planning for MFI profitability.
  8. Marketing micro-finance.
  9. Gender – men and women as clients for micro-finance.
  10. Arrears and defaults – definition and measurement.
  11. Graduation and individual loans.
  12. Individual versus group lending, the pros and cons of each.
  13. Bangladesh Grameen groups or Indian self-help groups?
  14. Subsidies – when and how?
  15. Commercial banks and micro-finance.
  16. The need for micro-savings services.
  17. Micro-insurance.
  18. MFI staffing – recruitment and motivation.
  19. Management information systems, selection and design.
  20. Measuring the impact of micro-finance.
  21. The downside of micro-finance.
  22. Regulation and supervision, by whom and how?
Each session guide contains:
  • a brief statement of the session objective
  • an estimate of the time it should take
  • detailed notes for the trainer, including questions to be asked, issues to be discussed and points to be emphasised.
  • A number of simple exercises, case studies and other materials for stimulating participants'learning.
The session exercise and case study handouts may be photocopied for participants or customized to meet trainees needs via freely available web files. An introductory chapter includes advice on how to use the material in the book.

Like most remarkable innovations, micro finance is quite simple. Bankers and those who understand finance need only to appreciate the requirements of this new market to be able to serve it competently and NGO staff and other community development people who understand financial realities can quite quickly become successful micro finance practitioners. The use of this manual will enable more people to provide effective short courses in micro finance and thus contribute to the increased provision of financial services that meet the needs of the poor.

KeywordsMICROFINANCE
Date of Publication/Issue2003
Order onlineThe Development Bookshop
PricePound (UK) 19.95
PublisherITDG Publishing
Publication LocationLondon, UK
ISBN1853395633
Additional LinksTo order the South Asia edition
  
668 Knowledge Objects - 1024 Members - 83 Topics
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