1、 中文 3108字 外文原文 ： Microfinances Latest Growing Pains The most recent crisis to hit microfinance began in Indias southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where allegations of widespread over-indebtedness, heavy-handed collection tactics and borrower suicides have stirred a national debate about regulating th
2、e industry. In October, the state government slapped restrictions on microfinance institutions that crippled lending and sent collection rates plummeting along with the share price of SKS Microfinance, Indias largest for-profit microlender. On January 19, the Malegam Committee Report, released by th
3、e Reserve Bank of India, recommended a range of new regulations for Indias microfinance institutions, including interest rate caps, loan limits and income ceilings for borrowers. Some observers welcomed the news； doomsayers predicted a credit crunch and industry collapse. While it is too early to te
4、ll how the sector will respond, the crisis in Andhra Pradesh has sparked heated debate and soul-searching throughout the worlds microfinance community. During a recent program for microfinance leaders at Whartons Aresty Institute of Executive Education, discussion turned repeatedly to questions of o
5、ver-indebtedness, rapid industry growth, and the fine line between profits and purpose. The microfinance sector has experienced a rude awakening by a delinquency earthquake, said one of the programs 26 international participants, Kamran Azim, during a general discussion about the growth and sustaina
6、bility of the microfinance industry. Azim, head of operations at the Kashf Foundation, a microfinance organization established in 1996 in Lahore, Pakistan, pointed out that methods and methodologies in microfinance have changed little in the past 20 or 30 years. Now suddenly, the earth has moved. Sp
7、onsored by the Womens World Banking Center for Microfinance Leadership, the Advanced Leadership Program at Wharton brought together microfinance leaders for a week of intensive study, brainstorming and networking to help prepare them for the challenges facing microfinance today. The goal of this yea
8、rs cohort: to find innovative ways to confront the global economic crisis, new competition, increased regulation and relentless pressure to perform. During times of accelerated change, there is a tendency to rely on known ways of doing business, reads the introduction to one of the programs courses.
9、 Yet it is at just these times that innovation is of heightened importance. At the same time, as several participants noted, the industry must find new ways to sustain growth without losing sight of clients needs. For some microfinance institutions, that could require a crash course in business fund
10、amentals such as due diligence, sustainable growth and customer care. The Effects of Over-lending The modern microfinance movement began in Bangladesh in 1977, as an experiment by economics professor Muhammad Yunus, who gave out small, no-collateral loans to groups of borrowers too poor to get credi
11、t from traditional banks. Over the next three decades, the model he established became widely accepted and replicated in other countries as a way to fight poverty. Microfinance spread around the world and earned Yunus a Nobel Prize in 2006. But over the past few years, increasing competition among l
12、enders and a weak global economy have strained borrowers and microfinance institutions alike. As an increasing number of banks and for-profit companies entered the market and contributions from investors increased, some markets became over-saturated and borrowers over-extended. Microfinance institut
13、ions are now seeking ways to continue growing with less risk. We are in a tension field between sustainability and . social impact, said participant Carine Roenen, executive director of Fonkoze, a grass-roots microfinance organization based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. You take one of these two poles o
14、ut of the equation and things go wrong. Fonkoze, Haitis largest microfinance institution, is used to operating under such tension. After hurricanes affected the lives of one-third of its clients in 2008, Fonkoze helped struggling borrowers by rescheduling existing loans. Since the earthquake in Janu
15、ary 2010, it has distributed thousands of cash grants, and more than 10,000 new loans to clients, and has developed a catastrophe micro-insurance program. Microfinance, especially after Yunus received his Nobel prize, was branded as something that was good for the people, Roenen noted. And now Andhr
16、a Pradesh comes with a story where it is bad. We can probably learn what happened there. The public knows and expects from us that we provide social value. But we need to communicate about that much more than we do. The last three years have witnessed a wave of events stemming from over-lending, sai
17、d program participant Inez Murray, executive vice president of New York-based Womens World Banking. Among them: Nicaraguas microfinance industry suffered a crisis in 2008 when a No Pago (No Pay) movement led to widespread defaults and violent protests； Moroccos microfinance sector experienced a wave
18、 of defaults that led to the demise of one of the biggest MFIs； and Bosnia witnessed over-indebtedness after war recovery efforts spawned a large number of MFIs chasing too few customers. In each case, the root causes were complex: poor competitive practices - for example, cherry picking each others
19、 clients - as well as relaxation of due diligence as MFIs sought to grow rapidly； manipulation of clients by local political forces； and macroeconomic shocks. Microfinance works in an ecosystem, Murray said. When it becomes too successful and money is involved, risk is created. Program participant M
20、avsuda Vaisova saw the negative results of overlending in Tajikistan, where she works as general director for Humo and Partners, a micro-lending fund in Dushanbe. Started with a staff of just 19 in 2005, the microlending organization now has 11 branches, 260 employees, 10,000 clients and an active p
21、ortfolio of US$5.5 million. Last year, during the crisis situation, we saw what happened. People were killing themselves because they could not repay five or six loans, Vaisova said. These cases in Tajikistan happened so often that we said to all our creditors, Please dont push us because we cannot
22、push people to kill themselves. In some countries, the problem of over-indebtedness has been attributed to a lack of information: Without a system of credit bureaus or official identification cards for the poor, lenders could not determine a borrowers credit history or the presence of existing loans
23、 from other lenders. But that was not the case in Tajikistan, according to Vaisova. The country has a good information exchange about clients, so microfinance companies were able to see that borrowers were already in debt. They can see that this client has two, three outstanding debts with other org
24、anizations. Still, they would like to have more outreach, so they provide another loan, she said. When given the choice, most borrowers gladly take advantage of the extra credit. People cannot correctly evaluate their loan needs. They are just taking, taking, taking - and then they cannot repay. Tra
25、ditional banks, too, have begun to woo the micro-borrower in many countries, increasing pressure on microfinance institutions to hold market share. In this context of new competitors, of different competitors, bigger competitors than us, all this fight means it can be very easy to lose the mission,
26、said participant Rafael Llosa, general manager of Mibanco, a private bank in Lima, Peru, that focuses on micro and small businesses. Because you are fighting to be the leader in the market and you are fighting to survive, you start focusing on other things. And yet, profits are essential if the micr
27、ofinance institution wants to carry out its mission of poverty alleviation, participants said. You have to charge interest to cover all expenses, said Marie Louise Nsabiyumva, CEO of Burundi-based savings and credit cooperative C.E.C.M. and vice chair of the Burundian Microfinance Network. Otherwise
28、, you would disappear. And that isnt useful for the client. Added Llosa: If we are not profitable, we are not sustainable. For that reason, its not an error to have profits. Building Coalitions But how much profit? In Andhra Pradesh, state government officials in October cited microlenders quest for hyper profits as reason to clamp down on the industry.
