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Contributions from the field to InfoResources Focus 2/08, Accessing Financial Services in Rural Areas, Accès aux services financiers en milieu rural, El acceso a los servicios financieros en las zonas rurales.

 

Other interesting documents

All documents are stored as PDF (Download reader: Adobe).

top of page Case Studies by Swiss Students

In the framework of the United Nations' Year of Microfinance 2005, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Swiss Universities elaborated together several case studies on SDC's financial sector development projects. Students from different Swiss Universities did a three months internship in a microfinance institution or a financial sector project supported by SDC. The students used this chance to do research for their master's degree, which became the base for their summarised case study. The field work of the Swiss students was partly carried out in collaboration with university students from the respective countries. The objectives of this project, which was implemented by Intercooperation, was to analyse and disseminate SDC's experience in financial sector development, and to promote Swiss students and familiarise them with SDC's projects. Seven summarised case studies were produced on selected topics relevant to SDC's financial sector development programme and the current international microfinance debate.

Case Study no. 1: Agricultural Credit Scoring System

Case Study no. 2: Using Palm Pilots to Reduce Microfinance Transaction Costs

Case Study no. 3: Mobilizing Savings in Rural Albania

Case Study no. 4: Des crédits pour les petits producteurs agricoles

Case Study no. 5: D'organisation informelle de micro crédit à banque commerciale: vaut-il la peine de se transformer?

Case Study no. 6: Le rôle des associations de microfinance dans le développement du secteur financier

Case Study no. 7: Transfert d'argent des migrants: un service intéressant pour une institution de microfinance?

top of page Technical notes on saving

SDC publication: Mobilizing Savings - Key issues and good practices in savings promotion
Savings services respond to poor peoples' basic needs to deposit money in a safe and accessible manner. The present publication will provide you with key information on why savings are so important for poor people and what has to be taken into account by a financial institution which mobilizes savings. You can read about the importance of the legal and economic environments for savings mobilization and the role of the government. This brochure is a central reading for all those who want to get involved in the promotion of savings services for poor households. It is divided in four chapters: 1. Savings from the point of view of households. 2. Advantages and disadvantages of introducing savings services, from the point of view of the financial institutions, and the conditions that must be fulfilled by the institution, in order to attract poor peoples' savings. 3. Design of savings products for low-income households. 4. Economic environment and legal and regulatory frameworks of a country, with respect to monetary saving.
The technical note on saving is downloadable in English, French and Spanish [PDF, about 1 MB each]

top of page Devfinance reviews and annexes
Year Rev. Annex
2005 Oct.-Nov. -
 
Year Rev. Annex
2004 Q1 annex
  Q2 -
  Q3-4 -
 
Year Rev. Annex
2003 Q1 annex
  Q2 annex
  Q3 annex
  Q4 annex
Year Rev. Annex
2002 Q1 annex
  Q2 annex
  Q3 annex
  Q4 annex
 
Year Rev. Annex
2001 Q1 annex
  Q2 annex
  Q3 annex
  Q4 annex
  Q4 spec. annex 1
  Q4 spec. annex 2
 
Year Rev. Annex
2000 01 annex
  02 -
  03 -
  04 annex
  05 annex
  06 annex
  07 annex
  08 see 09
  09 annex
  Q4 annex
  Q4 spec. annex

The whole Archive is available at the Ohio State University

top of page Monitoring system for savings and credit operations

This tool has been elaborated by Intercooperation on behalf of SDC's backstopping mandate on finance, in order to monitor SDC's projects in the area of financial sector development. It can be used both to follow the evolution of savings and credit operations, with respect to their outreach and depth, and to measure the financial performance of the institution or project. Complete and up-to-date financial statements (balance sheet and income statement) are a precondition to use the present tool.

For the projects and organisations themselves, the monitoring system can be used as a management instrument to help the directors and board members take the right decisions. The tool has been field-tested by microfinance institutions in India and Bolivia. It has also been adapted to other instruments (CGAP, MBB) that aim at promoting transparent and accurate data and indicators on the performance of microfinance institutions around the world.

The monitoring system is a package of two complementary documents (download below). A short version of the monitoring tool is available for those micro finance institutions, which do not have a comprehensive Management Information System yet. However, if the necessary information is available, we highly recommend to use the long version monitoring tool.

Long (complete) version:

  1. Guide and explanation of data and ratios [PDF] contains the guidelines on how to fill out the monitoring system and provides explanations on the data and ratios.
  2. Monitoring sheets in MS-Excel [XLS] is the actual monitoring system which has to be filled out. Ratios are calculated automatically by the system.

Short version:

  1. Guide and explanation of data and ratios [PDF] contains the guidelines on how to fill out the monitoring system and provides explanations on the data and ratios.
  2. Monitoring sheet in MS-Excel [XLS] is the actual monitoring system which has to be filled out. Ratios are calculated automatically by the system.

id/intercooperation / 03.03.2005

top of page Savings & Credit Forum: presentations, minutes, references

The Savings and Credit Forums are organized twice a year by Intercooperation on behalf of SDC since 1996. Participants from SDC, Swiss NGOs, consultants and academics are given the opportunity to get an expert's view on topical themes related to savings and credit institutions and financial sector development. It is also a unique occasion for actors in Switzerland to exchange experiences and opinions.


  • Access to Finance in Sub-Saharan Africa and Social Performance Mainstreaming in Microfinance (2008-12-16) updated
  • Community-managed Savings and Lending Approaches: Overview, VSLA model (2008-08-29) updated

  • Microinsurance: Introduction, case studies, outlook (2007-11-30) updated

  • Poverty Scorecards, a tool to measure poverty presented by Mark Schreiner (2007-10-19)
  • Transformation of micro-credit NGOs/projects into regulated MFIs (2007-06-15)
  • Outcome and Impact Evaluation of Financial Sector Projects (2006-12-08)
  • What constitutes international 'good' practice in Small Business Lending? (2006-06-19):
  • "Electronic banking for the poor - How can it facilitate reaching poorer and/or more remote clients?" (2005-12-02):
  • How to deal with risks in lending to agricultural households? (2005-06-11):
  • Social performance of micro finance institutions (2004-11-19):
  • "Models" (2004-06-11):
  • Rural Finance and Agricultural Credit (2003-08-11):
  • Financial Viability (2002-11-22):
  • The Poor and Their Money (2002-04-19):
  • Sparen (Ersparnisbildung, -mobilisierung und -sicherung) (2001-06-22):
  • Monitoring von Finanzsystemen (2000-12-01):
  • Rahmenbedingungen, Voraussetzungen und Vorbereitungen um in einem Land Aktivitäten im Spar & Kredit Bereich neu zu unterstützen (2000-03-31):
  • Older Saving & Credit forums
    • top of page Linking self-help groups to banks in India

    To celebrate 10 years of its self-help group (SHG)-Bank Linkage program, NABARD has commissioned a series of studies to provide multi-perspective evaluation of the SHG-bank linkage programme from academics, consultants and practitioners of microfinance from India and abroad. The six studies (downloadable on the NABARD website) provide a broad and detailed overview on different aspects of self-help groups and their linkage to banks.

    top of page Definitions of terms and ratios for financial institutions

    The document "Definitions of Selected Financial Terms, Ratios, and Adjustments for Microfinance" has been elaborated by three development agencies, IADB, USAID and CGAP, and three rating agencies, MicroRate, M_Cril and Planet Rating. It contains a glossary of standard definitions used in finance and standard methods to calculate key financial ratios.
    Download

    top of page Micro Banking Bulletin: Focus on savings

    The Micro Banking Bulletin, issue no. 9 July 2003, contains four core contributions that are dedicated to savings as an important financial service for the poor. The articles address key questions around savings mobilization. A few include: Why do clients want access to savings? What are they looking for in a savings product? Why are MFIs interested in expanding their services to include this new product line? What challenges do MFIs face when introducing savings? How have MFIs coped with some of these challenges? How can we measure the performance of savings operations?
    The issue is further enriched with a couple of case studies highlighting experience in savings mobilization and design of savings products by MFIs.
    Download: www.mixmbb.org/en/mbb_issues/09/MBB9_Full.PDF

    top of page Micro Success Story? Transformation of Nongovernment Organizations into Regulated Financial Institutions by Nimal A. Fernando

    The study examines the ownership structure, expectations, and achievements of microfinance institutions that have been established by transforming non-government organizations (NGOs) in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Although the number of such institutions is low, they have had a catalytic effect and major influence on the microfinance industry.
    The purposes of the study are to :
    - inform and improve understanding by microfinance stakeholders of the nature of transforming NGOs into regulated financial institutions.
    - enrich and encourage discussions on the issues relating to transformations among stakeholders and potential investors.
    - help transformed institutions improve their operations to serve larger segments of the poor more effectively.
    - enable NGOs considering transformation into regulated financial institutions to make more informed decisions.
    Download: www.adb.org/Documents/Studies/microfinance-success/micro-success.pdf

    top of page Revolving funds or community-managed loan funds

    A recent focus note by CGAP provides proof and reasons for the extremely low rate of success of externally funded savings and credit groups, also called revolving funds
    Actually, experience shows that savings-based groups (whose money comes from members' savings), which later enter into lending among members, are much more successful than savings and credit groups whose first money is a donation or soft loan from an external donor. The incentive for members of a group to pay back a loan is much higher when the money is "hot" (coming from the community or neighbours) than when it is "cold" (coming from outside). The focus note also stresses the importance of long-term professional support in managing the money of the savings-based groups, which can be financed by donors. Read the full note (PDF).

    11 Reasons for the Possible Failure of a Revolving Fund by W. Milligan is a classic in the literature on Revolving Funds and explains reasons, why Revolving Funds, which are set up for the support of small-scale farming and livestock activities, have often failed to be an effective and sustainable support instrument: Download: English, French or Spanish version.

    top of page Loan guarantee funds

    When a microfinance institution is reluctant to lend money to a certain client segment, considered as very risky by the institution, loan guarantees can be an efficient tool to encourage the institution to lend to this client segment. In the same way, loan guarantees can help microfinance institutions leverage commercial funds from banks.

    Reichmuth Markus, M. Flaming, R. Dominicé, Tulum (2006), Lessons learnt from Guarantee Funds: The Example of the International Guarantee Fund (IGF). Swiss Development Cooperation, Berne. Read (PDF)

    CGAP (2007). Guaranteed Loans to Microfinance Institutions: How do they Add Value? Focus Note no. 40. January 2007. Washington DC. Read (PDF)