Sunday, January 16, 2011

Microfinance's Transition to Scale

Today's New York Times editorial by the Grameen Bank's Muhammad Yunus, Sacrificing Microcredit for Megaprofits, recommends a number of procedural and regulatory improvements to the "industry" of providing loans to the poor.  Recent actions and reactions by for-profit loan providers, most notably in India, have dealt microfinance a "body blow".  However, paradoxically, freedom and growth are often enhanced by establishing or better defining boundaries.  I think that ultimately we'll look back on this moment in history as the time when microfinance became an even more robust and scalable way to eradicate poverty.