There are four types of institutions that continue to provide microfinance services: credit unions, NGOs/NBFIs, microfinance banks and downscaling banks.
Credit unions (CUs), along with other mutual savings and credit institutions, are member-owned and governed, deposit-taking organisations that provide financial services only to their members. Traditionally, credit unions have not always been considered part of the microfinance sector, given their focus on consumer lending—as opposed to the microfinance industry’s origins and focus on microenterprise lending. However, credit unions fit within the broader definition of microfinance.
Non-governmental organizations/non-bank financial institutions (NGOs/NBFIs) are institutions that specialise in lending to the self-employed and microenterprises but in most countries are not licensed to take deposits.
Microfinance banks are fully regulated, for-profit, commercial banks that offer a broad range of products and services but, from their inception, lend to micro and small enterprises as their primary business purpose. Such institutions are often referred to as “greenfield banks.”
Downscaling commercial banks that provide microfinance are banks that, at some point after their inception, introduced specialized lending services for micro and small enterprises.
List of microfinance providers in ECA
Read more about:
Funding structure of microcredit providers (2009)
Microfinance Confidence Index (2010)
