Should You Invest in the South Asian Microfinance Market? World Bank, MIX, and CGAP Report Highlights Microfinance Performance and Transparency in South Asia

The South Asian microfinance industry underwent major advances under the United Nations International Year of Microcredit 2005 initiative and is home to several of the fastest growing MFIs in the world. Overall, this sector has achieved massive credit outreach driven by record productivity and efficiency and a wide range of financial service offerings targeted to the poor. This sector is highly efficient both in terms of cost per borrower and cost per unit of loans outstanding. “Each dollar in loans costs just fourteen cents to maintain, compared with nearly twenty-six cents (p.13) in sub-Saharan Africa. Compared with their peers to the east, South Asian MFIs spend on average twenty-five dollars per borrower, less than half the average for the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia or Indonesia.”
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