BANGKOK, Thailand — Eleven microfinance groups that together serve
nearly 26 million people agreed Monday to publicly report their annual
interest rates, a move many hope will empower the world's poorest
borrowers as the once-charitable sector becomes increasingly
commercialized.
"If you are making profits you are moving into the same mental
mindset as loan sharks," Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus told
The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Bali, Indonesia,
where he is attending the 11th annual Microcredit Summit Campaign
conference that opened Monday.
When Mr. Yunus began making $27 (U.S.) loans to women in Bangladesh
three decades ago, he hoped to rescue the poor from usury. The new
language of microfinance, which turns on words like "return on
equity," today weighs heavily on his mind.
He believes interest rates should be set to cover costs, not maximize
profits.
"Microcredit is about helping poor people get out of poverty," said
Mr. Yunus, whose pioneering bank, Grameen Bank, has already signed on to
the new MicroFinance Transparency initiative.
Grameen is owned by the poor borrowers it serves, and sustains itself
with local deposits. The bank reported a narrow profit of 106.9 million
Bangladeshi takas ($1.6-million) on revenue of 10.6 billion takas
($155-million) in 2007.
Grameen charges a maximum interest rate, non-compounded, of 20 per cent
a year. Beggars pay no interest, and total interest payments can never
exceed the principal of the loan.
The rush of new entrants into the microcredit market has created a
welter of offerings, but lack of standardized reporting makes it hard
for borrowers to figure out how to get the best deal.
"Clients are at a significant disadvantage," said MicroFinance
Transparency founder Charles Waterfield.
He aims to bring truth-in-lending standards to the developing world, by
publishing standardized annual interest rates on the Internet. The data
from lending institutions will be self-reported.
The initiative, a U.S. non-profit, is still cementing funding and plans
to start publishing country-specific data on its website in October.
The push for disclosure comes at a time of intense debate within the
field, which pits privatization advocates against those who believe you
can either save the world or make a buck – but not do both at the same
time.
Members of the pro-market faction argue that civic-mindedness alone
will never draw enough capital to serve the billion people who want
rudimentary banking services. Profitability is the key to
sustainability, they say.
Those against commercialization fear the microcredit movement is losing
its soul, prioritizing investors over the world's farmers, sheepherders
and street vendors, many of whom struggle by on less than a dollar a
day.
Microfinance, for profit or not, is booming. According to Deutsche
Bank, the volume of microfinance loans hit $25-billion in 2007, up from
$4-billion in 2001, and another $250-billion is still needed. The bank
expects that private investors will pour $20-billion into microfinance
institutions in 2015 – 10 times more than they did in 2006.
Many groups that started as non-profits have become for-profit, and a
plethora of microfinance investment funds, targeted at institutions and
individuals, have opened in the last few years.
Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley
have all entered the microfinance market, either providing direct
funding, backing investment funds or securitizing debt, and private
equity investors have also started to pile in, according to the World
Bank's CGAP, a microfinance research group.
"You are seeing more and more financially driven investors going into
this market," Eric Savage, managing director of Unitus Capital, a new
for-profit firm that will help microfinance groups raise capital, said
by phone from Bangalore, India.
Mr. Savage said the subprime crisis may give microfinance a further
boost as investors seek diversification, and that tightening credit has
so far had a "quite muted" effect on loans to microfinance
institutions.