Have sophisticated thermometers ever reduced the temperature?

Ramesh S Arunachalam

The hype of the moment in microfinance is undoubtedly to subscribe to all kinds of code of conducts, client protection principles, social performance and other self-regulating initiatives. To set the record straight, had all the stakeholders really subscribed to these in the first place, there would have not been such a crisis in Indian microfinance

The ongoing Microfinance India Summit has a special session titled, ‘Client protection and Code of Conduct: From principles to practice and compliance’. The session is to be held on 13 December 2011 (1.30 - 3.00 p.m - Breakout Sessions). As the session introducer notes:

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What is said at conferences is very different from what is implemented in practice

December 12, 2011 07:13 AM
 
Ramesh S Arunachalam

It is very easy to talk high flying concepts at conferences and also publicly claim that the same is being applied in practice. In reality, however, much of the intended strategies do not get implemented in microfinance and that is something that conference organizers, industry associations, regulators and stakeholders must take notice

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The Micro-Finance India Summit 2011

Ramesh S Arunachalam

Social performance is the ‘in’ thing in micro-finance and an entire session is devoted at the Micro-Finance India summit towards the same and a special social performance report is also to be released at the Summit. The Micro-Finance India Summit session is titled, “Beyond the Buzz, Embedding Social Performance within Practice” and the emphasis of the session is described  below

Session Outline: Beyond the Buzz, Embedding Social Performance within Practice

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The Microfinance India Summit 2011: Bridging The Hiatus, Building Trust?

Ramesh S Arunachalam

The two-day summit is expected to analyze and introspect on the issues that have led to the erosion of trust with/in the sector. Additionally, the summit is to attempt and build consensus on how the sector can move forward

Come November-December and it is microfinance tourism time across the globe and India is no different. We have an annual Microfinance India summit, held at the sprawling five-star Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi annually where the industry stakeholders meet to discuss critical issues pertaining to the microfinance industry! This year’s summit themed as, “Bridging the Hiatus, Building Trust”, will be held on 12 and 13 December 2011.

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Tackling informal collateral and collateral substitutes in Indian microfinance

Ramesh S Arunachalam

The RBI must ensure that informal collateral and/or abusive collateral substitutes do not contaminate microfinance in the future. It should also seriously think on incentives/disincentives that can be set up to eliminate use of informal collateral and/or abusive collateral substitutes, where they exist

Recently the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a circular defining NBFC–MFIs. According to the circular, an NBFC-MFI is defined as follows:


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Priority sector lending to MFIs—need for adequate supervision

Ramesh S Arunachalam

If the concerned RBI departments could not monitor five of the top 13 NBFC-MFIs that were supposed systemically (very) important, then, how can they be expected to set up supervisory mechanisms for several hundred MFIs as per the proposed Microfinance bill?

If equity was in some ways responsible for the burgeoning growth of Indian microfinance institutions (MFIs), the (huge) amount of (priority sector) debt leveraged by these 13 NBFC-MFIs (in top 14 MFIs) and other NBFC MFIs is another issue here.

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The special category of NBFC MFIs: Lessons for the Department of Non-Bank Supervision, RBI

Ramesh S Arunachalam

Without question, the present scenario, in the wake of Friday’s circular, places a huge burden of responsibility on the Department of Non-Bank Supervision and the RBI and for the sake of real financial inclusion, we sincerely hope that the department lives up to its roles and responsibilities with diligence, aplomb and efficiency

On Friday (2 December 2011), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) created a special category of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs)—NBFC–MFI. The RBI must be congratulated for creating this new category as it explicitly recognizes microfinance as an important facet of the larger financial sector.

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