Where are the Rogue MFIs? Where are the Fly by Night Operators?

Ramesh S Arunachalam

It has become very commonplace to argue that ‘Rogue MFIs’ or ‘Fly by Night Operators’ are the ones who are responsible for the present Andhra Crisis. This statement is certainly worthy of serious investigation and the RBI and other regulators must attempt to get to the root of this statement.  Further, all the industry associations must transparently share all information on their members so that any black sheep (hiding within) are immediately identified and dealt with.  It is also imperative that the names of the so called Rogue MFIs are publicised through various forums so that donors, investors and lenders boycott them in totality.

But there is one problem however – where do we begin to search for these so called ‘Rogue MFIs’? I guess the logical point would be to start with the people who made the statements in the first place. The onus is now on them to help identify the ‘Rogues’ or ‘Fly by Night Operators’ from among and/or outside their saintly flock.