Microfinance Essay

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1.1 Introduction to Microfinance

An important term that is cropping up everywhere nowadays is “Microfinance”. It is important for every person interested in the field of finance to be aware of this term, as in the coming days Microfinance is expected to be one of the brightest and the most appealing sector of the Indian Economy.
Microfinance refers to provision of financial services to poor or low-income clients, including consumers and self-employed.in other words, it refers to a movement that envisions “a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, it includes not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers.”. Promoter’s microfinance generally believes that such access will help poor people out of poverty.
Microcredit should not be mixed with microfinance, which addresses a full range of banking needs for the poor people. As the financial services of microfinance usually involve small amounts of money – small loans, small savings etc. – the term "microfinance" helps to differentiate these services from those which formal banks provide.
A microfinance institution (MFI) is an organization that provides microfinance services, ranging from small non-profit organizations to large commercial banks. “An MFI can be broadly defined as any organization such as credit union, down-scaled commercial bank, financial NGO, or credit cooperative, etc. that provides financial services for the poor."
1.1.1 Principles
 Poor people need a variety of financial services, not just loans.
 Microfinance can pay for itself, and must do so if it is to reach very large numbers of poor people.
 Microfinance is about building permanen...

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...rganizations have also shown that the key to success lies in the evolution and participation of community based organizations at the grass-root level.
1.3.1 Micro-finance and Poverty Alleviation:
Most poor people manage to mobilize resources to develop their enterprises and their dwellings slowly over time. Financial services could enable the poor to leverage their initiative, accelerating the process of building incomes, assets and economic security. However, conventional financial institutions seldom lend down-market to serve the needs of low-income families and women-headed households. They are very often denied access to credit for any purpose, making the discussion of the level of interest rate and other terms of finance irrelevant. Therefore, the fundamental problem is not so much of unaffordable terms of loan but rather of the lack of access to credit itself.

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