Guest Post: The Major Leagues of Microfinance

Rob Katz — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:16:19 -0500

Guest blogger Matt MacGregor is a second year Masters Candidate at the Fletcher School, studying development economics and international environmental resource policy. A native of Little Compton, RI, USA, he has consulted on savings-led microfinance programs for Catholic Relief Services in Guatemala and El Salvador, and on sustainable development initiatives for Planet Tech Associates in Boston, MA. He has also worked in health development for the Timmy Foundation in Ecuador, and taught high school political science courses in both Boston and Costa Rica.

By Matt MacGregor
Reporting from Microfinance: The Next Decade

Microfinance has reached the major leagues.

That was the conclusion posited by Kim Wilson, a lecturer in international business and microfinance at the Fletcher School, during her introductory speech at the "Microfinance: The Next Decade" event on November 2nd. Hosted by the Fletcher School’s Center for Emerging Market Enterprises and prompted by the recent financial success of the Compartamos initial public offering (IPO), the "Dialogue" served as a forum for public debate between distinguished academics, practitioners, and leaders in the microfinance field. The topic: What role can and should international capital markets play in expanding the scope of financial services for the poor? If the Compartamos IPO and the enormous profits it generated for investors is a watershed, what are the implications for the well-being of the billions of people around the world who still lack access to formal financial services?

A wide variety of influential actors in the microfinance community assembled for the conference. New players (like Inshan Ali Nawaz of First Microfinance Bank and Raven Smith of the American International Group), faced off with heavy hitters (ACCION Executive Director Maria Otero, Harvard Business School professor Michael Chu, and Director of the Omidyar Network Jim Bunch). In addition, some of microfinance’s earliest pioneers (Malcolm Harper, former Chairman of Basix and Director of M-Crill and Professor John Hammock, former Executive Director of ACCION) were in attendance, giving the day’s activities both an interdisciplinary and inter-generational feel.

Wilson’s assertion that microfinance has just begun to reach its financial prime was reflected in the overall tone of the "Dialogue"—a tone that stressed the positive implications of microfinance’s newfound ability to tap into the vast financial resources of capital markets, alleviating poverty through profit. Harvard’s Michael Chu outlined the four keys he believes are essential to widespread poverty alleviation: scale, permanence, efficacy, and efficiency. The only thing that society has ever known that can deliver on all four, noted Chu, is the profit motive. And when this profit motive attracts trillions of dollars from the capital markets, even the billions of the Omidyars and Gateses pale in comparison.

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Guest Post: The Major Leagues of Microfinance