MICROBANKING BULLETIN - Microfinance Information Exchange

BULLETIN HIGHLIGHTS AND TABLESmethodology, they are serving three different targetmarkets. In fact, three of the Top Ten institutionsserve the low-end market, which means that theiraverage loan balance is either below $150 or below20 percent of GNP per capita. Furthermore, theTop Ten list includes NGOs, regulated financialinstitutions and credit unions. Obviously there isnot one road to financial self-sufficiency.As shown in Figure 4, FSS MFIs are generallymedium sized, located in Latin America, serve abroad target market, and use individual lendingmethodology. Nevertheless, the commoncharacteristics of FSS MFIs highlighted in Figure 4are prevalent partly because there are moreinstitutions with those characteristics represented inthe Bulletin database.Figure 4: Characteristics of Financially Self-sufficient MFIs (FSS MFIs)Number of Financially Self-sufficient MFIs454035302520151050424136352219181210865 51LowBroadHighAfricaAsiaLAMENAE. EuropeSmallMediumLargeIndividualSolidarityMarket Region Size MethodologyVillageFigure 5: Comparison of FSS and Non-FSS CharacteristicsCharacteristic # of FSS MFIs # of non-FSS % FSS to TotalMFIsAgeMature (>6 years) 48 18 73Young (3 to 6 years) 8 16 33New (< 3 years) 9 15 38RegionAfrica 6 13 32Asia 12 10 55Eastern Europe 5 9 36Latin America 41 12 77Middle East North Africa 1 5 17Scale of OperationsLarge (portfolio > US$ 8 million) 18 4 82Medium (portfolio between US$ 1 million and US$ 8 million) 42 25 63Small (portfolio < $1 million) 5 20 20MethodologyIndividual 36 16 69Solidarity (groups of 3-9 borrowers) 19 21 48Village (groups with ≥ 10 borrowers) 10 12 45Target MarketLow-end (depth < 20% OR average loan balance < US$ 150) 22 28 44Broad (depth between 20% and 149%) 35 17 67High-end (depth ≥ 150%) 8 4 6730 MICROBANKING BULLETIN, SEPTEMBER 2000