• 동아시아경상학회지
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• 제4권3호
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• pp.18-24
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• 2016

Delivery of microfinance services to operators of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is increasingly being viewed as a strategic means of assisting growth and development. The purpose of this study was to assess the contribution of microfinance to entrepreneurship development in Mogadishu. Survey research design was adopted and Primary data was collected by using questionnaires. This research study used purposive sampling method to select 120 respondents; but 108 were found usable and analyzed. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. This study found the access of microfinance services to the SMEs is poor. This study also found due to the collateral, short term repayment challenges, small and medium businesses are difficult to access loan from microfinance institutions which hinder their entrepreneurship development. In addition to these, this study found that the Microfinance institutions play significance role to the growth and sustainable development of SMEs and also increases the productivity and profitability of small and medium enterprises. This study recommends the guidelines of microfinance institutions to finance SMEs needs to be flexible and microfinance institutions should give technical assistant to the SME to ensure success in the SME sector. The study also suggests access of microfinance services to the SMEs should be facilitated and awareness to microfinance purposes and activities should be created.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.821-832
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• 2021

Economic deprivation of households remains a significant economic issue in the world. Researchers have shown great concern in identifying crucial factors to enhance poor households' socio-economic performance. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a new conceptual framework to investigate the influence of different microfinance services on households' socioeconomic performance using moderated mediation analysis of various crucial factors. Focus-group interviews with managements of the microfinance institution, i.e. Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), and a systematic literature review were conducted for this purpose, and a new framework for the future study has been developed. The result from focus-group interviews and systematic literature review propose microfinance financial services, training programs, and business coaching as independent factors, whereas household socioeconomic performance as a dependent factor in the proposed model. Specifically, this study provides the direction to scholars to empirically test the direct relationship between financial services and household socioeconomic performance and the indirect relationship between training programs, business coaching, and household socioeconomic performance. Further, microfinance institutions' service efficiency is also included as a moderator that can strengthen microfinance services' effectiveness. The study also provides useful implications for policymakers, financial institutions, households, micro-enterprises, and researchers to better understand microfinance interventions and household economic mechanisms.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• 제10권3호
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• pp.13-22
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• 2020

Purpose: Vietnam's financial sector has grown substantially but microfinance institutions (MFIs) still face up many challenges in providing financial services to underserved customer segments, including small businesses, rural populations, and urban migrants. The recent worldwide explosion of fintech, including in Vietnam, promises to fill this gap. The purpose of this paper is to analyze fintech activities in microfinance sector and recommend for fintech adoption of MFIs in Vietnam. Research Design, Data and Methodology: The paper's data is mainly based on international organizations such as Asia Development Bank (ADB), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Vietnamese organizations such as Vietnam Microfinance Working Group. The authors suggest new directions for microfinance activities in Vietnam. Results: In recent years, the application of fintech in microfinance sector has brought many good results, such as improving the quality of products and services, easy access to many customer groups, and scaling up the operating model. Conclusion: MFIs in Vietnam have developed new products and services by applying fintech. The application of technology and digital solution has supported MFIs in Vietnam to gradually achieve targeted growth through expanding geographical inclusion/scale, enhancing product supply/provision, helping in-depth customer understanding as well as improving operational efficiency.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권5호
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• pp.807-815
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• 2021

Microfinance is seen as a tool for poverty elimination by providing various services characterized as financial and non-financial to minority groups in the society to be included in the mainstream financial system. This paper seeks to examine the effect of microfinance institutions' (MFIs) financial and non-financial services on women's entrepreneurship and empowerment in Jordan as a developing country. To gain a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of microfinance services, the study is undertaken to address the question of what kinds of services are available and whether the MFI services are in line with the actual needs of women entrepreneurs to improve their performance. Hence, a qualitative approach was adopted in this study using semi-structured interview questions to collect data from twenty-four women entrepreneurs in Jordan. The results showed that, as regards financial services, the most important needs of women entrepreneurs include providing adequate financing with necessary financial facilities such as reducing interest, reducing monthly installments, and extending the grace period, while non-financial services should include holding specialized courses, accessing a counseling center, providing incentives and psychological support, marketing support, and monitoring and evaluation. This study concluded that factors associated with MFI play a crucial role to uplift women entrepreneurs and eliminate gender inequality.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.21-31
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• 2016

Although the microfinance sector in Bangladesh is mainly driven by Non-Governmental-Organizations (NGOs), there are other types of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) that also provide financial services to the poor. Despite the criticism of microfinance programs, the current poverty situation in Bangladesh still requires such programs for consistently battling poverty. Hence, the aim of this paper is to profile the microfinance sector based on their legal status and investigate any possible differences (if any) between them in various aspects. After a thorough investigation of the sector, it was found that around 33 million of the clients are being served by the mainstream MFIs (NGO and Grameen Bank) while another 10-15 million clients are served by other types of MFIs (financial cooperatives, credit unions, various ministries etc.), accounting for the one-third of the total population in Bangladesh. While the mainstream MFIs basically works with poor, other categories of MFIs are concerned with relatively wealthy clients. Looking into the financial performance and social intermediation of the MFIs, the NGO-MFIs performed better than other types of MFIs in the sector.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권12호
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• pp.39-50
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• 2021

We investigate competition and its impact on borrowers' indebtedness (BI) in South Asian microfinance. Our empirical investigations are based on a comprehensive panel dataset of 355 MFIs located in seven countries in South Asia. The empirical results revealed that microfinance in South Asia is imperfectly competitive and the existing industry shows a monopolistic competition during the period under consideration. Also, the competition increased after the global financial crisis (GFC) in 2007-08 which implies that microfinance uses hostile lending behavior through the adverse selection that is highly risky and it can induce repayment crisis. The empirical findings also show that increased competition has significant negative effects on borrowers' indebtedness, particularly in large-scale and regulated microfinance organizations (MFIs). Instead of using equity financing, debt financing could be a better option. Finally, we find that while competition seems to have some positive effects in economic discourse by channeling technological improvements in products and services, its negative effects in microfinance outweigh the benefits over costs, particularly in poverty-stricken nations. The findings are helpful for the policymakers, microfinance industry, investors, borrowers, and Central Bank of South Asian markets.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.11-14
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• 2016

Purpose - Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Bangladesh have been providing savings services to their clients at least for the past 15 years. However, whether an MFI should have institutional requirement(s) to be a deposit-taker generates interest among academics and policy makers. Thus, this short note aims to provide a brief overview of institutional properties of MFIs. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - This study used the existing literature and reports by the Microcredit Regulatory Authority' to investigate institutional properties of MFIs. In doing so, we have used 'institutional theory of saving' as a theoretical ground. Although the 'institutional theory of saving' has several important properties, the existing literature mostly discusses seven features such as information, incentives, facilitation, expectation, access, restrictions and security. Results - It is found that MFIs- in general- should have all the seven important institutional properties to be considered as an ideal savings institution. With regards to the microfinance sector in Bangladesh, this study supports that all the NGO-MFIs have these properties to be considered as an ideal deposit taker. Conclusions - The microfinance sector in Bangladesh needs to design and develop comprehensive and customer friendly savings products to further motivate the poor to save in MFIs.

• 벤처창업연구
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.65-73
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• 2012

마이크로파이넨스 지원정책은 경제성장 및 빈곤완화를 위한 정책적 도구로 활용되고 있다. 이러한 중요성에 따라 그간 학계에서도 마이크로 파이넨스에 대한 이론적, 사례적 연구를 수행하여 왔다. 그러나, 그간의 연구들은 마이크로파이넨스에 대한 개념적 접근과 개별적 특성에 초점을 맞추어 온 관계로 이론과 프랙티스의 종합적 논의가 부족했고, 특히 마이크로파이넨스 시스템의 한계에 대해서는 관심이 미흡하였다. 이러한 문제의식에 따라 본 연구에서는 마이크로파이넨스의 대표적 사례인 방글라데시 그라민 은행의 성공 및 내재적 한계를 그간의 학술문헌과 최신 데이터를 이용하여 종합적으로 분석하였다. 주요 내용을 요약하면 다음과 같다. 그라민 은행의 대출제도는 일반 상업은행과는 반대의 형태로 운영되어 대출자의 자산이 많을수록 대출받는 금액이 큰 일반 상업은행과 달리, 그라민 은행은 대출자의 자산이나 소득이 적을수록 더 많은 대출이 가능하도록 설계되어 있다. 둘째, 그라민 은행의 성공은 혁신, 엄격한 감시통제 구조, 적응 및 학습, 인센티브 시스템 등의 복합적 요소의 결합에 의해서 가능하였다. 반면 그라민 은행 역시 금융시스템의 한 형태인 관계로 신용리크스는 내재적 리스크로 작용하고 있으며 빈곤 문제 해결에 대해 과대포장되었다는 비판도 제기된다. 그러나 분명한 것은 마이크로파이넨스 제도가 제도권 금융기관에서 자금을 융통하기 어려운 빈곤층의 금융수단으로서 작동해 왔으며, 지역사회의 빈곤문제는 물론 경제적 가치창출의 도구로서 기여한 것도 분명해 보인다. 향후 마이크로파이넨스의 건전성을 높이고, 대출자의 자립을 지원하기 위해서는 단순 대출에 머물지 않고 대출자에 대한 자문과 사업중계 등의 부가적 서비스를 제공하는 것도 고려할 사항이다.

• 한국전자거래학회지
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.285-301
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• 2010

Peer-to-Peer(P2P : 개인간) 금융은 인터넷 오픈마켓을 통해 이뤄지는 다수의 대출자와 대부자 간의 신용 대출 서비스이다. P2P 금융은 전세계적으로 빠른 성장을 보이고 있으며, 미소금융(Microfinance)의 성장에 대한 관심이 증폭된 후, 인터넷 대부시장은 사회적 신용대여의 대안으로 부각되고 있다. 국내에서도 제도권금융에서 대출을 받을 수 없는 저신용등급자들이 증가하면서 기존 제도권금융을 이용할 수 없는 금융 소외계층의 대출 서비스의 대안으로 급부상하고 있다. P2P 금융은 인터넷을 통한 신용 대출 및 대출자 속성 상, 채무 불이행 위험에 노출될 가능성이 높음에도 불구하고 이자율에 비해 대손 위험성이 상당히 낮은 편으로, 대출자는 신용도 보다 낮은 이자율로 자금을 확보할 수 있고, 투자자는 타 재테크에 비해 높은 수익을 얻을 수 있는 장점을 지녔다. 본 연구는 P2P 금융을 개념화하고 국내외 P2P 금융 사이트 중 대표 사이트를 분석한 결과를 통해 P2P 금융 서비스의 논점을 정리하고 연구 주제로서의 가능성을 검토한다. 특히, 기존 금융기관들이 대출 서비스 제공 시 발생하게 되는 정보 비대칭 문제를 P2P 금융 사이트에서 어떻게 적용되는지 논의한다.