Rahul Project on Micro Finance

8/8/2019 Rahul Project on Micro Finance

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RESEARCH PROJECT

ON

A critical analysis of Micro finance in India

SUBMITTED

FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF MBA (FT) DEGREE

OF

BURKATULLAH UNIVERSITY BHOPAL

BY

RAHUL PATEL

(MBA IV SEMESTER)

TIT MBA BHOPAL

TECHNOCRATS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MBA

BHOPAL

2010

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DECLARATION

I Rahul Patel student of MBA IV semester of Technocrats

Institution of Technology MBA Bhopal hereby declare that the project report entitled A critical

analysis of Micro finance in India is own original based on survey undertaken by me. Also

declare that this Report has not been submitted to any University/ Institute for the award of any

degree or any professional diploma.

Date Rahul Patel

MBA IV semester

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CERTIFICATE

This is to certified that miss Rahul Patel has completed her Project

work on the subject entitled A critical analysis of Micro finance in Indiawhich is based on

research study undertaken by her. The project report is completed by the candidate under my

supervision. It is an original unaided research study completed under my supervision to meet the

partial requirement of MBA (F.T.) degree of Burkatullah University Bhopal.

Date

(Supervision)

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Contents

Chapter 1-Introduction.....................5

1.1 Microfinance

Definition.5

1.2 Strategic Policy

Initiatives12

1.3 Activities in

Microfinance13

1.4 Legal

Regulations13

Chapter 2-Micro-Finance in India.............................................................................................16

2.1 Distribution of Indebted Rural Households: Agency wise...19

2.2 Relative share of Borrowing of Cultivator Households21

2.3 Distribution based on Asset size of Rural Households.22

2.4 Banking Expansion ..23

2.5 Microfinance Social Aspects ...........................................23

Chapter 3- Self Help Groups .24

3.1 How self-help groups work24

3.2 Sources of capital and links between SHGs and Banks...25

3.3 How SHGs save...25

3.4 SHGs-Bank Linkage Model.26

3.5 Life insurances for self-help group members.28

Chapter 4-Microfinance Models.29

Chapter 5- Role, Functions and Working Mechanism of Financial Institutions..32

5.1 ICICI Bank.325.2 Bandhan.39

5.3 Grameen Bank.41

5.4 SKS Microfinance42

Chapter 6- Marketing of Microfinance Products.45

Chapter 7- Success Factors of Microfinance in India..474


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Chapter 8- Issues related to Microfinance in India..52

Bibliography

56

Chapter 1: Introduction

Microfinance is defined as any activity that includes the provision of

financial services such as credit, savings, and insurance to low income individuals which fall just

above the nationally defined poverty line, and poor individuals which fall below that poverty

line, with the goal of creating social value. The creation of social value includes poverty

alleviation and the broader impact of improving livelihood opportunities through the provision of

capital for micro enterprise, and insurance and savings for risk mitigation and consumption

smoothing. A large variety of actors provide microfinance in India, using a range of

microfinance delivery methods. Since the ICICI Bank in India, various actors have endeavored

to provide access to financial services to the poor in creative ways. Governments also have

piloted national programs, NGOs have undertaken the activity of raising donor funds for on-

lending, and some banks have partnered with public organizations or made small inroads

themselves in providing such services. This has resulted in a rather broad definition of

microfinance as any activity that targets poor and low-income individuals for the provision of

financial services. The range of activities undertaken in microfinance include group lending,individual lending, the provision of savings and insurance, capacity building, and agricultural

business development services. Whatever the form of activity however, the overarching goal that

unifies all actors in the provision of microfinance is the creation of social value.

1.1 Microfinance Definition

According to International Labor Organization (ILO),

Microfinance is an economic development approach that involves providing financial servicesthrough institutions to low income clients.

In India, Microfinance has been defined by The National

Microfinance Taskforce, 1999 as provision of thrift, credit and other financial services and

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products of very small amounts to the poor in rural, semi-urban or urban areas for enabling

them to raise their income levels and improve living standards.

"The poor stay poor, not because they are lazy but because they have no access to capital."

The dictionary meaning of finance is management of money. The

management of money denotes acquiring & using money. Micro Finance is buzzing word, used

when financing for micro entrepreneurs. Concept of micro finance is emerged in need of meeting

special goal to empower under-privileged class of society, women, and poor, downtrodden by

natural reasons or men made; caste, creed, religion or otherwise. The principles of Micro Finance

are founded on the philosophy of cooperation and its central values of equality, equity and

mutual self-help. At the heart of these principles are the concept of human development and the

brotherhood of man expressed through people working together to achieve a better life for

themselves and their children.

Traditionally micro finance was focused on providing a very standardized

credit product. The poor, just like anyone else, (in fact need like thirst) need a diverse range of

financial instruments to be able to build assets, stabilize consumption and protect themselves

against risks. Thus, we see a broadening of the concept of micro finance--- our current challenge

is to find efficient and reliable ways of providing a richer menu of micro finance products. MicroFinance is not merely extending credit, but extending credit to those who require most for their

and familys survival. It cannot be measured in term of quantity, but due weightage to quality

measurement. How credit availed is used to survive and grow with limited means.

Who are the clients of micro finance?

The typical micro finance clients are low-income persons that do not have

access to formal financial institutions. Micro finance clients are typically self-employed, often

household-based entrepreneurs. In rural areas, they are usually small farmers and others who are

engaged in small income-generating activities such as food processing and petty trade. In urban

areas, micro finance activities are more diverse and include shopkeepers, service providers,

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artisans, street vendors, etc. Micro finance clients are poor and vulnerable non-poor who have a

relatively unstable source of income.

Access to conventional formal financial institutions, for many reasons, is

inversely related to income: the poorer you are, the less likely that you have access. On the other

hand, the chances are that, the poorer you are, the more expensive or onerous informal financial

arrangements. Moreover, informal arrangements may not suitably meet certain financial service

needs or may exclude you anyway. Individuals in this excluded and under-served market

segment are the clients of micro finance.

As we broaden the notion of the types of services micro finance encompasses, the

potential market of micro finance clients also expands. It depends on local conditions and

political climate, activeness of cooperatives, SHG & NGOs and support mechanism. For

instance, micro credit might have a far more limited market scope than say a more diversified

range of financial services, which includes various types of savings products, payment and

remittance services, and various insurance products. For example, many very poor farmers may

not really wish to borrow, but rather, would like a safer place to save the proceeds from their

harvest as these are consumed over several months by the requirements of daily living. Central

government in India has established a strong & extensive link between NABARD (National

Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development), State Cooperative Bank, District Cooperative

Banks, Primary Agriculture & Marketing Societies at national, state, district and village level.

The Need in India

India is said to be the home of one third of the worlds poor; official estimates range from

26 to 50 percent of the more than one billion population.

About 87 percent of the poorest households do not have access to credit.

The demand for microcredit has been estimated at up to $30 billion; the supply is less

than $2.2 billion combined by all involved in the sector.

Due to the sheer size of the population living in poverty, India is strategically significant in the

global efforts to alleviate poverty and to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving

the worlds poverty by 2015. Microfinance has been present in India in one form or another since

the 1970s and is now widely accepted as an effective poverty alleviation strategy. Over the last

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five years, the microfinance industry has achieved significant growth in part due to the

participation of commercial banks. Despite this growth, the poverty situation in India continues

to be challenging.

Some principles that summarize a century and a half of development

practice were encapsulated in 2004 by Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and

endorsed by the Group of Eight leaders at the G8 Summit on June 10, 2004:

Poor people need not just loans but also savings, insurance and money transfer

services.

Microfinance must be useful to poor households: helping them raise income, build up

assets and/or cushion themselves against external shocks.

Microfinance can pay for itself.Subsidies from donors and government are scarce

and uncertain, and so to reach large numbers of poor people, microfinance must pay

for itself.

Microfinance means building permanent local institutions.

Microfinance also means integrating the financial needs of poor people into a

countrys mainstream financial system.

The job of government is to enable financial services, not to provide them.

Donor funds should complement private capital, not compete with it.

The key bottleneck is the shortage of strong institutions and managers. Donors

should focus on capacity building.

Interest rate ceilings hurt poor people by preventing microfinance institutions from

covering their costs, which chokes off the supply of credit.

Microfinance institutions should measure and disclose their performance both

financially and socially.

Microfinance can also be distinguished from charity. It is better to provide grants to

families who are destitute, or so poor they are unlikely to be able to generate the cash flow

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required to repay a loan. This situation can occur for example, in a war zone or after a natural

disaster.

Financial needs and Financial services

In developing economies and particularly in the rural areas, many

activities that would be classified in the developed world as financial are not monetized: that is,

money is not used to carry them out. Almost by definition, poor people have very little money.

But circumstances often arise in their lives in which they need money or the things money canbuy.

In Stuart Rutherfords recent bookThe Poor and Their Money, he cites several types of needs:

Lifecycle Needs: such as weddings, funerals, childbirth, education, homebuilding,

widowhood, old age.

Personal Emergencies: such as sickness, injury, unemployment, theft, harassment or

death. Disasters: such as fires, floods, cyclones and man-made events like war or bulldozing of

dwellings.

Investment Opportunities: expanding a business, buying land or equipment, improving

housing, securing a job (which often requires paying a large bribe), etc.

Poor people find creative and often collaborative ways to meet these needs,

primarily through creating and exchanging different forms of non-cash value. Common

substitutes for cash vary from country to country but typically include livestock, grains,

jewellery and precious metals.

As Marguerite Robinson describes in The Microfinance Revolution, the 1980s

demonstrated that microfinance could provide large-scale outreach profitably, and in the

1990s, microfinance began to develop as an industry. In the 2000s, the microfinance industrys

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objective is to satisfy the unmet demand on a much larger scale, and to play a role in reducing

poverty. While much progress has been made in developing a viable, commercial microfinance

sector in the last few decades, several issues remain that need to be addressed before the industry

will be able to satisfy massive worldwide demand.

The obstacles or challenges to building a sound commercial microfinance industry include:

Inappropriate donor subsidies

Poor regulation and supervision of deposit-taking MFIs

Few MFIs that mobilize savings

Limited management capacity in MFIs

Institutional inefficiencies

Need for more dissemination and adoption of rural, agricultural microfinance

methodologies

Role of Microfinance:

The micro credit of microfinance progamme was first initiated in the year 1976

in Bangladesh with promise of providing credit to the poor without collateral , alleviating

poverty and unleashing human creativity and endeavor of the poor people. Microfinance impact

studies have demonstrated that:

Microfinance helps poor households meet basic needs and protects them against risks.

The use of financial services by low-income households leads to improvements in

household economic welfare and enterprise stability and growth.

By supporting womens economic participation, microfinance empowers women, thereby

promoting gender-equity and improving household well being.

The level of impact relates to the length of time clients have had access to financial

services.

The Origin of Microfinance

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Although neither of the terms microcredit or microfinance were used in the academic

literature nor by development aid practitioners before the 1980s or 1990s, respectively, the

concept of providing financial services to low income people is much older.

While the emergence of informal financial institutions in Nigeria dates back to the 15 th century,

they were first established in Europe during the 18th century as a response to the enormous

increase in poverty since the end of the extended European wars (1618 1648). In 1720 the first

loan fund targeting poor people was founded in Ireland by the author Jonathan Swift. After a

special law was passed in 1823, which allowed charity institutions to become formal financial

intermediaries a loan fund board was established in 1836 and a big boom was initiated. Their

outreach peaked just before the government introduced a cap on interest rates in 1843. At this

time, they provided financial services to almost 20% of Irish households. The credit cooperatives

created in Germany in 1847 by Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen served 1.4 million people by 1910.

He stated that the main objectives of these cooperatives should be to control the use made of

money for economic improvements, and to improve the moral and physical values of people and

also, their will to act by themselves.

In the 1880s the British controlled government of Madras in South India, tried to use the German

experience to address poverty which resulted in more than nine million poor Indians belonging to

credit cooperatives by 1946. During this same time the Dutch colonial administrators constructed

a cooperative rural banking system in Indonesia based on the Raiffeisen model which eventually

became Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), now known as the largest MFI in the world.

Microfinance Today

In the 1970s a paradigm shift started to take place. The failure of subsidized

government or donor driven institutions to meet the demand for financial services in developing

countries let to several new approaches. Some of the most prominent ones are presented below.

Bank Dagan Bali (BDB) was established in September 1970 to serve low income people in

Indonesia without any subsidies and is now well-known as the earliest bank to institute

commercial microfinance. While this is not true with regard to the achievements made in

Europe during the 19th century, it still can be seen as a turning point with an ever increasing

impact on the view of politicians and development aid practitioners throughout the world. In

1973 ACCION International, a United States of America (USA) based non governmental

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organization (NGO) disbursed its first loan in Brazil and in 1974 Professor Muhammad Yunus

started what later became known as the Grameen Bank by lending a total of $27 to 42 people in

Bangladesh. One year later the Self-Employed Womens Association started to provide loans of

about $1.5 to poor women in India. Although the latter examples still were subsidized projects,

they used a more business oriented approach and showed the world that poor people can be good

credit risks with repayment rates exceeding 95%, even if the interest rate charged is higher than

that of traditional banks. Another milestone was the transformation of BRI starting in 1984. Once

a loss making institution channeling government subsidized credits to inhabitants of rural

Indonesia it is now the largest MFI in the world, being profitable even during the Asian financial

crisis of 1997 1998.

In February 1997 more than 2,900 policymakers, microfinance practitioners and representatives

of various educational institutions and donor agencies from 137 different countries gathered in

Washington D.C. for the first Micro Credit Summit. This was the start of a nine year long

campaign to reach 100 million of the world poorest households with credit for self employment

by 2005. According to the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report 67,606,080 clients have been

reached through 2527 MFIs by the end of 2002, with 41,594,778 of them being amongst the

poorest before they took their first loan. Since the campaign started the average annual growth

rate in reaching clients has been almost 40 percent. If it has continued at that speed more than

100 million people will have access to microcredit by now and by the end of 2005 the goal of the

microcredit summit campaign would be reached. As the president of the World Bank James

Wolfensohn has pointed out, providing financial services to 100 million of the poorest

households means helping as many as 500 600 million poor people.

1.2 Strategic Policy Initiatives

Some of the most recent strategic policy initiatives in the area of Microfinance

taken by the government and regulatory bodies in India are:

Working group on credit to the poor through SHGs, NGOs, NABARD, 1995

The National Microfinance Taskforce, 1999

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Working Group on Financial Flows to the Informal Sector (set up by PMO), 2002

Microfinance Development and Equity Fund, NABARD, 2005

Working group on Financing NBFCs by Banks- RBI.

1.3 Activities in Microfinance

Microcredit: It is a small amount of money loaned to a client by a bank or other institution.

Microcredit can be offered, often without collateral, to an individual or through group lending.

Micro savings: These are deposit services that allow one to save small amounts of moneyfor future use. Often without minimum balance requirements, these savings accounts allow

households to save in order to meet unexpected expenses and plan for future expenses.

Micro insurance: It is a system by which people, businesses and other organizations make a

payment to share risk. Access to insurance enables entrepreneurs to concentrate more on

developing their businesses while mitigating other risks affecting property, health or the ability

to work.

Remittances: These are transfer of funds from people in one place to people in another,

usually across borders to family and friends. Compared with other sources of capital that can

fluctuate depending on the political or economic climate, remittances are a relatively steady

source of funds.

1.4 Legal Regulations

Banks in India are regulated and supervised by the Reserve Bank of India

(RBI) under the RBI Act of 1934, Banking Regulation Act, Regional Rural Banks Act, and the

Cooperative Societies Acts of the respective state governments for cooperative banks.

NBFCs are registered under the Companies Act, 1956 and are governed under the RBI Act.

There is no specific law catering to NGOs although they can be registered under the Societies

Registration Act, 1860, the Indian Trust Act, 1882, or the relevant state acts. There has been a

strong reliance on self-regulation for NGO MFIs and as this applies to NGO MFIs mobilizing

deposits from clients who also borrow. This tendency is a concern due to enforcement problems

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that tend to arise with self-regulatory organizations. In January 2000, the RBI essentially created

a new legal form for providing microfinance services for NBFCs registered under the Companies

Act so that they are not subject to any capital or liquidity requirements if they do not go into the

deposit taking business. Absence of liquidity requirements is concern to the safety of the sector.

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Chapter 2: Microfinance in India

At present lending to the economically active poor both rural and urban is

pegged at around Rs 7000 crores in the Indian banks credit outstanding. As against this,

according to even the most conservative estimates, the total demand for credit requirements for

this part of Indian society is somewhere around Rs 2,00,000 crores.

Microfinance changing the face of poor India

Micro-Finance is emerging as a powerful instrument for poverty

alleviation in the new economy. In India, micro-Finance scene is dominated by Self Help Groups

(SHGs) - Banks linkage Programmed, aimed at providing a cost effective mechanism for

providing financial services to the 'unreached poor'. In the Indian context terms like "small and

marginal farmers", " rural artisans" and "economically weaker sections" have been used to

broadly define micro-finance customers. Research across the globe has shown that, over time,

microfinance clients increase their income and assets, increase the number of years of schooling

their children receive, and improve the health and nutrition of their families.

A more refined model of micro-credit delivery has evolved lately,

which emphasizes the combined delivery of financial services along with technical assistance,

and agricultural business development services. When compared to the wider SHG bank linkage

movement in India, private MFIs have had limited outreach. However, we have seen a recent

trend of larger microfinance institutions transforming into Non-Bank Financial Institutions

(NBFCs). This changing face of microfinance in India appears to be positive in terms of the

ability of microfinance to attract more funds and therefore increase outreach.

In terms of demand for micro-credit or micro-finance, there are three segments, which demand

funds. They are:

At the very bottom in terms of income and assets, are those who are landless and

engaged in agricultural work on a seasonal basis, and manual laborers in forestry,

mining, household industries, construction and transport. This segment requires, first

and foremost, consumption credit during those months when they do not get labour work,

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and for contingencies such as illness. They also need credit for acquiring small

productive assets, such as livestock, using which they can generate additional income.

The next market segment is small and marginal farmers and rural artisans, weavers

and those self-employed in the urban informal sector as hawkers, vendors, and

workers in household micro-enterprises. This segment mainly needs credit for working

capital, a small part of which also serves consumption needs. This segment also needs

term credit for acquiring additional productive assets, such as irrigation pump sets, bore

wells and livestock in case of farmers, and equipment (looms, machinery) and work

sheds in case of non-farm workers.

The third market segment is of small and medium farmers who have gone in for

commercial crops such as surplus paddy and wheat, cotton, groundnut, and others

engaged in dairying, poultry, fishery, etc. Among non-farm activities, this segment

includes those in villages and slums, engaged in processing or manufacturing activity,

running provision stores, repair workshops, tea shops, and various service enterprises.

These persons are not always poor, though they live barely above the poverty line and

also suffer from inadequate access to formal credit.

Well these are the people who require money and with Microfinance it is possible. Rightnow the problem is that, it is SHGs' which are doing this and efforts should be made so that the

big financial institutions also turn up and start supplying funds to these people. This will lead to a

better India and will definitely fulfill the dream of our late Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira

Gandhi, i.e. Poverty.

One of the statements is really appropriate here, which is as:

Money, says the proverb makes money. When you have got a little, it is often easy to get

more. The great difficulty is to get that little.Adams Smith.

Today India is facing major problem in reducing poverty. About 25 million

people in India are under below poverty line. With low per capita income, heavy population

pressure, prevalence of massive unemployment and underemployment, low rate of capital

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formation, misdistribution of wealth and assets, prevalence of low technology and poor

economics organization and instability of output of agriculture production and related sectors

have made India one of the poor countries of the world.

Present Scenario of India:

India falls under low income class according to World Bank. It is second

populated country in the world and around 70 % of its population lives in rural area. 60% of

people depend on agriculture, as a result there is chronic underemployment and per capita

income is only $ 3262. This is not enough to provide food to more than one individual. The

obvious result is abject poverty, low rate of education, low sex ratio, and exploitation. The major

factor account for high incidence of rural poverty is the low asset base. According to Reserve

Bank of India, about 51 % of people house possess only 10% of the total asset of India .This has

resulted low production capacity both in agriculture (which contribute around 22-25% of GDP)

and Manufacturing sector. Rural people have very low access to institutionalized credit (from

commercial bank).

Poverty alleviation programmes and conceptualization of Microfinance:

There has been a continuous effort of planners of India in addressing the

poverty. They have come up with development programmes like Integrated Rural Development

progamme (IRDP), National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), Rural Labour Employment

Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) etc. But these progamme have not been able to create massive

impact in poverty alleviation. The production oriented approach of planning without altering the

mode of production could not but result of the gains of development by owners of instrument of

production. The mode of production does remain same as the owners of the instrument have low

access to credit which is the major factor of production. Thus in Nineties National bank for

agriculture and rural development (NABARD) launches pilot projects of Microfinance to bridge

the gap between demand and supply of funds in the lower rungs of rural economy. Microfinance

the buzzing word of this decade was meant to cure the illness of rural economy. With this

concept of Self Reliance, Self Sufficiency and Self Help gained momentum. The Indian

microfinance is dominated by Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their linkage to Banks.

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Deprived of the basic banking facilities, the rural and semi urban Indian masses are still relying

on informal financing intermediaries like money lenders, family members, friends etc.

2.1 Distribution of Indebted Rural Households: Agency wise

Credit Agency Percentage of Rural Households

Government 6.1

Cooperative Societies 21.6

Commercial banks and RRBs 33.7

Insurance 0.3

Provident Fund 0.7

Other Institutional Sources 1.6

All Institutional Agencies 64.0

Landlord 4.0

Agricultural Moneylenders 7.0

Professional Moneylenders 10.5Relatives and Friends 5.5

Others 9.0

All Non Institutional Agencies 36.0

All Agencies 100.0

Source: Debt and Investment Survey, GoI 1992

Seeing the figures from the above table, it is evident that the share of institutional credit is much

more now.

The above survey result shows that till 1991, institutional credit accounted for around two-thirds

of the credit requirement of rural households. This shows a comparatively better penetration of

the banking and financial institutions in rural India.

Percentage distribution of debt among indebted Rural Labor Households by source of debt

Sr. No. Source of debt Households

With

cultivated

land

Without

cultivated

land

All

1 Government 4.99 5.76 5.372 Co-operative Societies 16.78 9.46 13.093 Banks 19.91 14.55 17.194 Employers 5.35 8.33 6.86

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5 Money lenders 28.12 35.23 31.706 Shop-keepers 6.76 7.47 7.137 Relatives/Friends 14.58 15.68 15.148 Other Sources 3.51 3.52 3.52 Total 100.00 100.00 100.00

Source: Rural labor enquiry report on indebtedness among rural labor households (55th

Round of N.S.S.) 1999-2000

The table above reveals that most of the rural labour households prefer to raise loan

from the non-institutional sources. About 64% of the total debt requirement of these households

was met by the non-institutional sources during 1999-2000. Money lenders alone provided debt

(Rs.1918) to the tune of 32% of the total debt of these households as against 28% during 1993-

94. Relatives and friends and shopkeepers have been two other sources which together

accounted for about 22% of the total debt at all-India level.

The institutional sources could meet only 36% of the total credit requirement of the rural

labour households during 1999-2000 with only one percent increase over the previous survey in

1993-94. Among the institutional sources of debt, the banks continued to be the single largest

source of debt meeting about 17 percent of the total debt requirement of these households. In

comparison to the previous enquiry, the dependence on co-operative societies has increased

considerably in 1999-2000. During 1999-2000 as much as 13% of the debt was raised from thissource as against 8% in 1993-94. However, in the case of the banks and the government

agencies it decreased marginally from 18.88% and 8.27% to 17.19% and 5.37% respectively

during 1999-2000 survey.

2.2 Relative share of Borrowing of Cultivator Households (in per cent)

Sources of Credit 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2002

*

Non Institutional 92.7 81.3 68.3 36.8 30.6 38.9Of which:

Moneylenders 69.7 49.2 36.1 16.1 17.5 26.8Institutional 7.3 18.7 31.7 63.2 66.3 61.1Of which:

Cooperative

Societies,etc

3.3 2.6 22.0 29.8 30.0 30.2

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Commercial banks 0.9 0.6 2.4 28.8 35.2 26.3Unspecified - - - - 3.1 -Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

* All India Debt and Investment Survey, NSSO, 59th round, 2003

Source: All India Debt and Investment Surveys

Table shows the increasing influence of moneylenders in the last decade. The

share of moneylenders in the total non institutional credit was declining till 1981, started picking

up from the 1990s and reached 27 per cent in 2001.

At the same time the share of commercial banks in institutional credit has come

down by almost the same percentage points during this period. Though, the share of cooperativesocieties is increasing continuously, the growth has flattened during the last three decades.

2.3 Distribution based on Asset size of Rural Households (in per cent)

Household Assets (Rs 000) Institutional Agency Non-Institutional

Agency

All

Less than 5 42 58 1005-10 47 53 10010-20 44 56 10020-30 68 32 10030-50 55 45 10050-70 53 47 10070-100 61 39 100100-150 61 39 100150-250 68 32 100250 and above 81 19 100All classes 66 34 100

Source: Debt and Investment Survey, GoI, 1992

The households with a lower asset size were unable to find financing options from

formal credit disbursement sources. This was due to the requirement of physical collateral by

banking and financial institutions for disbursing credit. For households with less than Rs 20,000

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worth of physical assets, the most convenient source of credit was non institutional agencies like

landlords, moneylenders, relatives, friends, etc.

Looking at the findings of the study commissioned by Asia technical Department

of the World Bank (1995), the purpose or the reason behind taking credit by the rural poor was

consumption credit, savings, production credit and insurance.

Consumption credit constituted two-thirds of the credit usage within which almost

three-fourths of the demand was for short periods to meeting emergent needs such as illness and

household expenses during the lean season. Almost entire demand for the consumption credit

was met by informal sources at high to exploitive interest rates that varied from 30 to 90 per cent

per annum.

Almost 75 per cent of the production credit (which accounted for about one-third of the totalcredit availed of by the rural masses) was met by the formal sector, mainly banks and

cooperatives.

2.4 Banking Expansion

Starting in the late 1960s, India was the home to one of the largest state interventions

in the rural credit market. This phase is known as the Social Banking phase.

It witnessed the nationalization of existing private commercial banks, massiveexpansion of branch network in rural areas, mandatory directed credit to priority sectors of the

economy, subsidized rates of interest and creation of a new set of regional rural banks (RRBs) at

the district level and a specialized apex bank for agriculture and rural development (NABARD)

at the national level.

The Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) is a measure of the economic activity in

the state and comparing it with the utilization of bank credit or bank deposits indicates how much

economic activity is being financed by the banks and whether there exists untapped potential for

increasing deposits in that state.

E.g. In the year 2003-2004 the percentage of bank deposits to NSDP is pretty high at around

75%-80% in Bihar and Jharkhand or these states are not as under banked as thought to be.

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2.5 Microfinance Social Aspects

Micro financing institutions significantly contributed to gender equality and

womens empowerment as well as poor development and civil society strengthening.

Contribution to womens ability to earn an income led to their economic empowerment,

increased well being of women and their families and wider social and political empowerment.

Microfinance programs targeting women became a major plank of poverty alleviation and gender

strategies in the 1990s. Increasing evidence of the centrality of gender equality to poverty

reduction and womens higher credit repayment rates led to a general consensus on the

desirability of targeting women.

Chapter 3: Self Help Groups (SHGs)

Self- help groups (SHGs) play today a major role in poverty alleviation in

rural India. A growing number of poor people (mostly women) in various parts of India are

members of SHGs and actively engage in savings and credit (S/C), as well as in other activities

(income generation, natural resources management, literacy, child care and nutrition, etc.). The

S/C focus in the SHG is the most prominent element and offers a chance to create some control

over capital, albeit in very small amounts. The SHG system has proven to be very relevant and

effective in offering women the possibility to break gradually away from exploitation and

isolation.

3.1 How self-help groups work

NABARD (1997) defines SHGs as "small, economically homogenous affinity

groups of rural poor, voluntarily formed to save and mutually contribute to a common fund to be

lent to its members as per the group members' decision".

Most SHGs in India have 10 to 25 members, who can be either only men, or only women, or

only youth, or a mix of these. As women's SHGs or sangha have been promoted by a wide range

of government and non- governmental agencies, they now make up 90% of all SHGs.

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The rules and regulations of SHGs vary according to the preferences of the

members and those facilitating their formation. A common characteristic of the groups is that

they meet regularly (typically once per week or once per fortnight) to collect the savings from

members, decide to which member to give a loan, discuss joint activities (such as training,

running of a communal business, etc.), and to mitigate any conflicts that might arise. Most SHGs

have an elected chairperson, a deputy, a treasurer, and sometimes other office holders.

Most SHGs start without any external financial capital by saving regular

contributions by the members. These contributions can be very small (e.g. 10 Rs per week).

After a period of consistent savings (e.g. 6 months to one year) the SHGs start to give loans from

savings in the form of small internal loans for micro enterprise activities and consumption. Only

those SHGs that have utilized their own funds well are assisted with external funds through

linkages with banks and other financial intermediaries.

However, it is generally accepted that SHGs often do not include the poorest of the poor, for

reasons such as:

(a) Social factors (the poorest are often those who are socially marginalized because of caste

affiliation and those who are most skeptical of the potential benefits of collective action).

(b) Economic factors (the poorest often do not have the financial resources to contribute to the

savings and pay membership fees; they are often the ones who migrate during the lean season,

thus making group membership difficult).

(c) Intrinsic biases of the implementing organizations (as the poorest of the poor are the most

difficult to reach and motivate, implementing agencies tend to leave them out, preferring to focus

on the next wealth category).

3.2 Sources of capital and links between SHGs and Banks

SHGs can only fulfill a role in the rural economy if group members have

access to financial capital and markets for their products and services. While the groups initially

generate their own savings through thrift (whereby thrift implies savings created by postponing

almost necessary consumption, while savings imply the existence of surplus wealth), their aim is

often to link up with financial institutions in order to obtain further loans for investments in rural

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enterprises. NGOs and banks are giving loans to SHGs either as "matching loans" (whereas the

loan amount is proportionate to the group's savings) or as fixed amounts, depending on the

group's record of repayment, recommendations by group facilitators, collaterals provided, etc.

3.3 How SHGs save

Self-help groups mobilize savings from their members, and may then on-

lend these funds to one another, usually at apparently high rates of interest which reflect the

members understanding of the high returns they can earn on the small sums invested in their

micro-enterprises, and the even higher cost of funds from money lenders. If they do not wish to

use the money, they may deposit it in a bank. If the members need for funds exceeds the groups

accumulated savings, they may borrow from a bank or other organization, such as a micro-

finance non-government organization, to augment their own fund.

The system is very flexible. The group aggregates the small individual saving

and borrowing requirements of its members, and the bank needs only to maintain one account for

the group as a single entity. The banker must assess the competence and integrity of the group as

a micro-bank, but once he has done this he need not concern himself with the individual loans

made by the group to its members, or the uses to which these loans are put. He can treat the

group as a single customer, whose total business and transactions are probably similar in amount

to the average for his normal customers, because they represent the combined banking business

of some twenty micro-customers. Any bank branch can have a small or a large number of such

accounts, without having to change its methods of operation.

Unlike many customers, demand from SHGs is not price-sensitive. Illiterate village

women are sometimes better bankers than some with more professional qualifications. They

know that rapid access to funds is more important than their cost, and they also know, even

though they might not be able to calculate the figures, that the typical micro-enterprise earns well

over 500% return on the small sum invested in it (Harper, M, 1997, p. 15). The groups thus

charge themselves high rates of interest; they are happy to take advantage of the generous spread

that the NABARD subsidized bank lending rate of 12% allows them, but they are also willing to

borrow from NGO/MFIs which on-lend funds from SIDBI at 15%, or from new generation

institutions such as Basix Finance at 18.5% or 21%.

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3.4 SHGs-Bank Linkage Model

NABARD is presently operating three models of linkage of banks with SHGs and NGOs:

Model 1: In this model, the bank itself acts as a Self Help Group Promoting Institution (SHPI).

It takes initiatives in forming the groups, nurtures them over a period of time and then provides

credit to them after satisfying itself about their maturity to absorb credit. About 16% of SHGs

and 13% of loan amounts are using this model (as of March 2002).

Model 2: In this model, groups are formed by NGOs (in most of the cases) or by government

agencies. The groups are nurtured and trained by these agencies. The bank then provides credit

directly to the SHGs, after observing their operations and maturity to absorb credit. While the

bank provides loans to the groups directly, the facilitating agencies continue their interactions

with the SHGs. Most linkage experiences begin with this model with NGOs playing a major role.

This model has also been popular and more acceptable to banks, as some of the difficult

functions of social dynamics are externalized. About 75% of SHGs and 78% of loan amounts are

using this model.

Model 3: Due to various reasons, banks in some areas are not in a position to even finance

SHGs promoted and nurtured by other agencies. In such cases, the NGOs act as both facilitators

and microfinance intermediaries. First, they promote the groups, nurture and train them and

then approach banks for bulk loans for on-lending to the SHGs. About 9% of SHGs and 13% of

loan amounts are using this model.

Comparative Analysis of Micro-finance Services offered to the poor

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Source: R. Arunachalam - Alternative Technologies in the Indian Micro- finance Industry

3.5 Life insurances for self-help group members

The United India Insurance Company has designed two PLLIs

(personal line life insurances) for women in rural areas. The company will be targeting self-help

groups, of which there are around 200,000 in the country, with 15-20 women in a group. The two

policies are

(1) the Mother Teresa Women & Children Policy, with the aim of giving to the woman in the

event of accidental death of her husband and to support her minor children in the event of her

death, and

(2) The Unimicro Health Scheme, giving personal accident and hospitalization covers besides

cover for damage to dwelling due to fire and allied perils.

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Chapter 4: Micro Finance Models

1. Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs):

MFIs are an extremely heterogeneous group comprising NBFCs, societies, trusts

and cooperatives. They are provided financial support from external donors and apex institutions

including the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK), SIDBI Foundation for micro-credit and NABARD

and employ a variety of ways for credit delivery.

Since 2000, commercial banks including Regional Rural Banks have been providing

funds to MFIs for on lending to poor clients. Though initially, only a handful of NGOs were

into financial intermediation using a variety of delivery methods, their numbers have increased

considerably today. While there is no published data on private MFIs operating in the country,

the number of MFIs is estimated to be around 800.

Legal Forms of MFIs in India

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Types of MFIs Estimated

Number*

Legal Acts under which Registered

1. Not for Profit MFIs

a.) NGO - MFIs

400 to 500 Societies Registration Act, 1860 or

similar Provincial Acts

Indian Trust Act, 1882

b.) Non-profit Companies 10 Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956

2. Mutual Benefit MFIs

a.) Mutually Aided Cooperative

Societies (MACS) and similarly

set up institutions

200 to 250 Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies

Act enacted by State Government

3. For Profit MFIs

a.) Non-Banking Financial

Companies (NBFCs)

6 Indian Companies Act, 1956

Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934

Total 700 - 800

Source: NABARD website

2. Bank Partnership Model

This model is an innovative way of financing MFIs. The bank is the lender and the

MFI acts as an agent for handling items of work relating to credit monitoring, supervision and

recovery. In other words, the MFI acts as an agent and takes care of all relationships with the

client, from first contact to final repayment. The model has the potential to significantly increase

the amount of funding that MFIs can leverage on a relatively small equity base.

A sub - variation of this model is where the MFI, as an NBFC, holds the individual

loans on its books for a while before securitizing them and selling them to the bank. Such

refinancing through securitization enables the MFI enlarged funding access. If the MFI fulfils the

true sale criteria, the exposure of the bank is treated as being to the individual borrower and the

prudential exposure norms do not then inhibit such funding of MFIs by commercial banks

through the securitization structure.

3. Banking Correspondents

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The proposal of banking correspondents could take this model a step further

extending it to savings. It would allow MFIs to collect savings deposits from the poor on behalf

of the bank. It would use the ability of the MFI to get close to poor clients while relying on the

financial strength of the bank to safeguard the deposits. This regulation evolved at a time when

there were genuine fears that fly-by-night agents purporting to act on behalf of banks in which

the people have confidence could mobilize savings of gullible public and then vanish with them.

It remains to be seen whether the mechanics of such relationships can be worked out in a way

that minimizes the risk of misuse.

4. Service Company Model

Under this model, the bank forms its own MFI, perhaps as an NBFC, and then

works hand in hand with that MFI to extend loans and other services. On paper, the model is

similar to the partnership model: the MFI originates the loans and the bank books them. But in

fact, this model has two very different and interesting operational features:

(a)The MFI uses the branch network of the bank as its outlets to reach clients. This allows the

client to be reached at lower cost than in the case of a standalone MFI. In case of banks which

have large branch networks, it also allows rapid scale up. In the partnership model, MFIs may

contract with many banks in an arms length relationship. In the service company model, the MFI

works specifically for the bank and develops an intensive operational cooperation between them

to their mutual advantage.

(b) The Partnership model uses both the financial and infrastructure strength of the bank to

create lower cost and faster growth. The Service Company Model has the potential to take the

burden of overseeing microfinance operations off the management of the bank and put it in the

hands of MFI managers who are focused on microfinance to introduce additional products, such

as individual loans for SHG graduates, remittances and so on without disrupting bank operations

and provide a more advantageous cost structure for microfinance.

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Chapter 5: Role, Functions and Working Mechanism of Financial Institutions

5.1 ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank is one bank that has developed a very clear strategy to expand the provision of

financial products and services to the poor in India as a profitable activity

- Haruhiko Kuroda, President, Asian Development Bank.

ICICIs microfinance portfolio has been increasing at an impressive speed. From 10,000

microfinance clients in 2001, ICICI Bank is now (2007) lending to 1.8 million clients through its

partner microfinance institutions, and its outstanding portfolio has increased from Rs. 0.20

billion (US$4.5 million) to Rs. 9.98 billion (US$227 million). A few years ago, these clients had

never been served by a formal lending institution.

There is an increasing shift in the microfinance sector from grant-giving to investment in the

form of debt or equity, and ICICI believes grant money should be limited to the creation of

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facilitative infrastructure. We need to stop sending government and funding agencies the signal

that microfinance is not a commercially viable system, says Nachiket Mor, Executive

Director of ICICI Bank.

As a result of banks entering the game, the sector has changed rapidly. There is no dearth of

funds today, as banks are looking into MFIs favorably, unlike a few years ago, says Padmaja

Reddy, the CEO of one of ICICI Banks major MFI partners, Spandana.

Bank Led Model

The bank led model was derived from the SHG-Bank linkage program of NABARD. Through

this program, banks financed Self Help Groups (SHGs) which had been promoted by NGOs and

government agencies.

ICICI Bank drew up aggressive plans to penetrate rural areas through its SHG program.

However, rather than spending time in developing rural infrastructure of its own, in 2000, ICICI

Bank announced merger of Bank of Madura (BoM), which had significant presence in the rural

areas of South India, especially Tamil Nadu, with a customer base of 1.9 million and 87

branches.

Bank of Madura's SHG development program was initiated in 1995. Through this program, it

had formed, trained and initiated small groups of women to undertake financial activities like

banking, saving and lending. By 2000, it had created around 1200 SHGs across Tamil Nadu and

provided credit to them.

Partnership Models

A model of microfinance has emerged in recent years in which a microfinance institution (MFI)

borrows from banks and on-lends to clients; few MFIs have been able to grow beyond a certain

point. Under this model, MFIs are unable to provide risk capital in large quantities, which limits

the advances from banks. In addition, the risk is being entirely borne by the MFI, which limits its

risk-taking.

This model aimed at synergizing the comparative advantages and financial strength of the bank

with social intermediation, mobilization power and infrastructure of MFIs and NGOs. Through

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this model, ICICI Bank could save on the initial costs of developing rural infrastructure and

micro credit distribution channels and could take advantage of the expertise of these institutions

in rural areas. Initially, ICICI Bank started off by lending to MFIs and NGOs in order to provide

the necessary financial support to their activities. Later, ICICI Bank came up with a plan where

the NGO/MFI continued to promote their microfinance schemes, while the bank met the

financial requirements of the borrowers.

Other Microfinance Initiatives

As a part of microfinance initiatives in the agriculture sector, ICICI Bank developed Farmer

Service Centers (FSC). An FSC was managed by an agricultural input supply company which

supplied inputs like seeds and technical knowhow to the farmers.

FSCs were also managed by an extension service organization which provided inputs, credit and

technology or by an NGO that provided all the services that farmers needed for their agricultural

needs. Working in close association with farmers, FSCs provided them with services like advice

on seeds, sowing techniques, pest control, weed control, usage and dosage of herbicides,

pesticides and fertilizers and other services associated with agriculture. The FSCs also provided

crop-related information and services to farmers, apart from facilitating the sale of agricultural

produce. The FSCs arranged to procure the produce through agents and sold it in organizedagricultural markets thus getting better realization.

The Future

These agents contact several borrowers, thus expanding the reach of ICICI Bank at a low cost.

Taking the FSC initiative further, ICICI Bank plans to provide farmers credit from sugar

companies, seed companies, dairy companies, NGOs, micro-credit institutions and food

processing industries.

SIG has been involved in a project in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to find out how wireless

technology can be applied in the development of low cost models of banking. Another plan to

increase the reach in rural areas is to launch mobile ATM services. ICICI Bank branded trucks

have started carrying ATMs through a number of villages

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Some Articles of News Paper:

1. ICICI Bank to offer micro-finance to sex-workers

Mumbai, March 14: In a novel way to help sex-workers to live more meaningfully, country's

largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank is planning to offer financial assistance to them though

the micro-finance route.

For starters, the bank plans to launch the programme in Kolkata by entering into a tie-up with

Durbar Mahila Samwanaya Samitee, an NGO working for the welfare of around 65,000 sex-

workers in and around the city.

Source: (Press Trust of India)Posted online: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at 20:54 hours IST

2. ICICI Bank launches new initiative in micro-finance

ICICI Bank has taken a stake of under 20 per cent in Financial Information Network and

Operations Private Ltd (FINO), which was launched on Thursday, July 13, 2001.

FINO would provide technological solutions as well as services to finance providers to reach the

underserved in the country. ICICI Bank is the lead facilitator.

According to Mr Nachiket Mor, Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank, FINO is an

independent entity. "We would reduce our stake in the company when required," he said.

ICICI Bank expects to target 200 micro-finance institutions (MFIs) by March 2007, he said,

speaking on the sidelines of the press conference to launch FINO. At present, the bank has tie-

ups with 100 MFIs.

FINO is an initiative in the micro-finance sector. It would target 300-400 million people who do

not have access to basic financial services, said Mr Manish Khera, CEO, FINO. The company

has an authorised capital of Rs 50 crore. MFIs, NBFCs, RRBs, co-operative banks, etc would

directly or indirectly tie up with FINO to use its services, he said. FINO would charge Rs 25-30

per account every year.

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Core banking products

FINO has partnered with IBM and i-flex to offer core banking products. It would also provide

credit bureau services, which includes individual customer credit rating and analytics based on

transaction history. It also launched biometric cards for customers, which would be a proof of

identity and give collateral to them. The card would also offer multiple products including

savings, loans, insurance, recurring deposits, fixed deposits and remittances. The company would

also build-up customer database, thus bringing them into mainstream banking.

"There was a need for automated structured data system like FINO," said Mr Mor. "Essential

pieces of infrastructure are missing in India. We lack credit-tracking mechanism; therefore there

was a need for an intervention like FINO."

The company expects to reach 25 million customers in five years and two million customers by

the end of 2007.

FINO aims bringing scale to "micro" business leading to lowering of costs for the local financial

institutions (LFIs) and act as an internal technology department for the LFIs, said Mr Khera.

The company is working on providing technological solutions in insurance, especially the health

insurance sector to the under-privileged," he said. It is interacting with Nabard, SIDBI and other

banks to give shape to what FINO does, said Mr Khera.

3. ICICI Bank's thrust on micro-finance

CHENNAI, MARCH 9. ICICI Bank has entered into partnerships with various microfinance

institutions (MFI) and non-Government organisations (NGOs) to scale up its micro lending

business. Addressing presspersons here, today, Nachiket Mor, Executive Director, ICICI Bank,

said, the partnership model would provide assured source of funding to NGOs and MFIs. The

bank had extended advances to the tune of Rs. 150 crores as on February 29, this year, under this

scheme, Mr. Mor said.

The bank had acquired a network of self-help groups (SHGs) developed by the erstwhile Bank of

Madura after its merger with ICICI Bank. Since then the SHG programme had grown

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substantially and 10,175 groups had been promoted reaching out to 2.03 lakh women spread

across 2,398 villages, the Executive Director said.

One of the micro finance institutions, `Microcredit Foundation of India', established by K. M.

Thiagarajan, former Chairman of Bank of Madura in 2002, had initiated a programme for

microcredit through self-help groups.

ICICI Bank has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Microcredit Foundation to

outsource SHG development, maintenance of groups, credit linkage and recovery of loans.

The MFI as Collection Agent

To address these constraints, ICICI Bank initiated a partnership model in 2002 in which the MFI

acts as a collection agent instead of a financial intermediary. This model is unique in that it

combines debt as mezzanine finance to the MFI (Mezzanine finance combines debt and equity

financing: it is debt that can be converted by the lender into equity in the event of a default.

This source of financing is advantageous for MFIs because it is treated like equity in the balance-

sheet and enables it to raise money without additional equity, which is an expensive financingsource.).The loans are contracted directly between the bank and the borrower, so that the risk for

the MFI is separated from the risk inherent in the portfolio. This model is therefore likely to have

very high leveraging capacity, as the MFI has an assured source of funds for expanding and

deepening credit. ICICI chose this model because it expands the retail operations of the bank by

leveraging comparative advantages of MFIs, while avoiding costs associated with entering the

market directly.

Securitization

Another way to enter into partnership with MFIs is to securitize microfinance portfolios. In 2004,

the largest ever securitization deal in microfinance was signed between ICICI Bank and SHARE

Microfinance Ltd, a large MFI operating in rural areas of the state of Andra Pradesh. Technical

assistance and the collateral deposit of US$325,000 (93% of the guarantee required by ICICI)

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were supplied by Grameen Foundation USA. Under this agreement, ICICI purchased a part of

SHAREs microfinance portfolio against a consideration calculated by computing the Net

Present Value of receivables amounting to Rs. 215 million (US$4.9 million) at an agreed

discount rate. The interest paid by SHARE is almost 4% less than the rate paid in commercial

loans. Partial credit provision was provided by SHARE in the form of a guarantee amounting to

8% of the receivables under the portfolio, by way of a lien on fixed deposit. This deal frees up

equity capital, allowing SHARE to scale up its lending. On the other hand, it allows ICICI Bank

to reach new markets. And by trading this high quality asset in capital markets, the bank can

hedge its own risks.

Beyond Microcredit

Microfinance does not only mean microcredit, and ICICI does not limit itself to lending. ICICIs

Social Initiative Group, along with the World Bank and ICICI Lombard, the insurance company

set up by ICICI and Canada Lombard, have developed Indias first index-based insurance

product. This insurance policy compensates the insured against the likelihood of diminished

agricultural output/yield resulting from a shortfall in the anticipated normal rainfall within the

district, subject to a maximum of the sum insured. The insurance policy is linked to a rainfall

index.

Technology

One of the main challenges to the growth of the microfinance sector is accessibility. The Indian

context, in which 70% of the population lives in rural areas, requires new, inventive channels of

delivery. The use of technologies such as kiosks and smart cards will considerably reduce

transaction costs while improving access. The ICICI Bank technology team is developing a

series of innovative products that can help reduce transaction costs considerably. For example, it

is piloting the usage of smart cards with Sewa Bank in Ahmedabad. To maximize the benefits of

these innovations, the development of a high quality shared banking technology platform which

can be used by MFIs as well as by cooperatives banks and regional rural banks is needed. ICICI

is strongly encouraging such an effort to take place. Wipro and Infosys, I-Flex, 3iInfotech, some

of the best Indian information technology companies specialized in financial services, and others,

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are in the process of developing exactly such a platform. At a recent technology workshop at the

Institute for Financial Management Research in Chennai, the ICICI Bank Alternate Channels

Team presented the benefits of investing in a common technology platform similar to those used

in mainstream banking to some of the most promising MFIs.

The Centre for Microfinance Research

ICICI bank has created the Centre for Microfinance Research (CMFR) at the Institute for

Financial Management Research (IFMR) in Chennai. Through research, research-based

advocacy, high level training and strategy building, it aims to systematically establish the links

between increased access to financial services and the participation of poor people in the larger

economy. The CMFR Research Unit supports initiatives aimed at understanding and analyzing

the following issues: impact of access to financial services; contract and product designs;

constraints to household productivity; combination of microfinance and other development

interventions; evidence of credit constraints; costs and profitability of microfinance

organizations; impact of MFI policies and strategies; peoples behavior and psychology with

respect to financial services; economics of micro-enterprises; and the effect of regulations.

Finally, the CMFR recognizes that while MFIs aim to meet the credit needs of poor households,

there are other missing markets and constraints facing households, such as healthcare,

infrastructure, and gaps in knowledge. These have implications in terms of the scale and

profitability of client enterprises and efficiency of household budget allocation, which in turn

impacts household well-being. The CMFR Microfinance Strategy Unit will address these issues

through a series of workshops which will bring together MFI practitioners and sectoral experts

(in energy, water, roads, health, etc). The latter will bring to the table knowledge of best

practices in their specific areas, and each consultation workshop will result in long-term

collaboration between with MFIs for implementing specific pilots.

5.2 Bandhan

(Ranked 2nd by Forbes Magazine in December 2007)

Bandhan is working towards the twin objective of poverty alleviation and

women empowerment. It started as a Capacity Building Institution (CBI) in November 2000

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under the leadership of Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh. During such time, it was giving capacity

building support to local microfinance institutions working in West Bengal.

Bandhan opened its first microfinance branch at Bagnan in Howrah district of West Bengal in

July 2002. Bandhan started with 2 branches in the year 2002-03 only in the state of West Bengal

and today it has grown as strong as 412 branches across 6 states of the country! The organization

had recorded a growth rate of 500% in the year 2003-04 and 611% in the year 2004-05. Till date,

it has disbursed a total of Rs. 587 crores among almost 7 lakh poor women. Loan outstanding

stands at Rs. 221 crores. The repayment rate is recorded at 99.99%. Bandhan has staff strength of

more than 2130 employees.

As on July 2009

Column1 Column2

No. of states : 8

No. of branches : 528

No. of members : 1,182,741

No. of staff : 3,191

Cumulative loan disbursed : Rs.1,249 crores

Loan outstanding : Rs. 417 crores

Operational Methodology

Bandhan follows a group formation, individual lending approach. A group of 10-25 members are

formed. The clients have to attend the group meetings for 2 successive weeks. 2 weeks hence,

they are entitled to receive loans. The loans are disbursed individually and directly to the

members.

Economic and Social Background of Clients

Landless and asset less women

Family of 5 members with monthly income less than Rs. 2,500 in rural and Rs.

3,500 in urban

Those who do not own more than 50 decimal (1/2acre) of land or capital of its

equivalent value

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Loan Size

The first loan is between Rs. 1,000 Rs. 7,000 for the rural areas and between Rs. 1,000 Rs.

10,000 for the urban areas. After the repayment, they are entitled to receive a subsequent loan

which is Rs 1,000 - 5,000 more than the previous loan.

Service Charge

Bandhan charges a service charge of 12.50% flat on loan amount. Bandhan initially charged

17.50%. However from 1st July 2005, it has slashed down its lending rate to 15.00%. Then it

was further reduced to 12.50% in May 2006. The reason is obvious. As overall productivity

increased, operational costs decreased. Bandhan, being a non profit organization wanted the

benefit of low costs to ultimately trickle down to the poor.

Monitoring System

The various features of the monitoring system are:

A 3 tier monitoring system Region, Division and Head Office

Easy reporting system with a prescribed checklist format

Accountability at all levels post monitoring phase

Cross- checking at all the levels

The management team of Bandhan spends 90.00% of time at the field

Liability structure for Loans

When a member wants to join Bandhan, she at first has to get inducted into a group. After she

gets inducted into the group, the entire group proposes her name for a loan in the Resolution

Book. Two members of the group along with the members husband have to sign as guarantors

in her loan application form. If she fails to pay her weekly installment, the group inserts peer

pressure on her. The sole purpose of the above structure is simply to create peer pressure.

5.3 Grameen Bank

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The Grameen Model which was pioneered by Prof Muhammed Yunus of Grameen

Bank is perhaps the most well known, admired and practised model in the world. The model

involves the following elements.

Homogeneous affinity group of five

Eight groups form a Centre

Centre meets every week

Regular savings by all members

Loan proposals approved at Centre meeting

Loan disbursed directly to individuals

All loans repaid in 50 instalments

The Grameen model follows a fairly regimented routine. It is very cost intensive as it involves

building capacity of the groups and the customers passing a test before the lending could start.

The group members tend to be selected or at least strongly vetted by the bank. One of the reasons

for the high cost is that staff members can conduct only two meetings a day and thus are

occupied for only a few hours, usually early morning or late in the evening. They were used

additionally for accounting work, but that can now be done more cost effectively using

computers. The model is also rather meeting intensive which is fine as long as the members have

no alternative use for their time but can be a problem as members go up the income ladder.

The greatness of the Grameen model is in the simplicity of design of products and delivery. The

process of delivery is scalable and the model could be replicated widely. The focus on the

poorest, which is a value attribute of Grameen, has also made the model a favourite among the

donor community.

However, the Grameen model works only under certain assumptions. As all the loans are only

for enterprise promotion, it assumes that all the poor want to be self-employed. The repayment of

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loans starts the week after the loan is disbursed the inherent assumption being that the

borrowers can service their loan from the ex-ante income.

5.4 SKS Microfinance

(CEO-Vikram Akula)

Many companies say they protect the interests of their customers. Very few

actually sit in dirt with them, using stones, flowers, sticks, and chalk powder to figure out if they

will be able to repay a $20 loan at $1 a month. With this approach, this company has created its

own loyal gang of over 2 million customers.

Its borrowers include agricultural laborers, mom-and-pop entrepreneurs, street vendors, home

based artisans, and small scale producers, each living on less than $2 a day. It works on a model

that would allow micro-finance institutions to scale up quickly so that they would never have to

turn poor person away.

Its model is based on 3 principles-

1. Adopt a profit-oriented approach in order to access commercial capital- Starting

with the pitch that there is a high entrepreneurial spirit amongst the poor to raise the

funds, SKS converted itself to for-profit status as soon as it got break even and got

philanthropist Ravi Reddy to be a founding investor. Then it secured money from parties

such as Unitus, a Seattle based NGO that helps promote micro-finance; SIDBI; and

technology entrepreneur Vinod Khosla. Later, it was able to attract multimillion dollar

lines of credit from Citibank, ABN Amro, and others.

2. Standardize products, training, and other processes in order to boost capacity- They

collect standard repayments in round numbers of 25 or 30 rupees. Internally, they have

factory style training models. They enroll about 500 loan officers every month. They

participate in theory classes on Saturdays and practice what they have learned in the field

during the week. They have shortened the training time for a loan officer to 2 months

though the average time taken by other industry players is 4-6 months.

3. Use Technology to reduce costs and limit errors- It could not find the software that

suited its requirements, so it they built their own simple and user friendly applications

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that a computer-illiterate loan officer with a 12th grade education can easily understand.

The system is also internet enabled. Given that electricity is unreliable in many areas they

have installed car batteries or gas powered generators as back-ups in many areas.

Scaling up Customer Loyalty

Instead of asking illiterate villagers to describe their seasonal pattern of cash flows, they

encourage them to use colored chalk powder and flowers to map out the village on the

ground and tell where the poorest people lived, what kind of financial products they needed,

which areas were lorded over by which loan sharks, etc. They set peoples tiny weekly

repayments as low as $1 per week and health and whole life insurance premiums to be $10 a

year and 25 cents per week respectively. They also offer interest free emergency loans. The

salaries of loan officers are not tied to repayment rates and they journey on mopeds to

borrowers villages and schedule loan meetings as early as 7.00 A.M. Deep customer loyalty

ultimately results in a repayment rate of 99.5%.

Leveraging the SKS brand

Its payoff comes from high volumes. They are growing at 200% annually, adding 50

branches and 1,60,000 new customers a month. They are also using their deep distribution

channels for selling soap, clothes, consumer electronics and other packaged goods.

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Chapter 6: Marketing of Microfinance Products

1. Contract Farming and Credit Bundling

Banks and financial institutions have been partners in contract farming schemes, set

up to enhance credit. Basically, this is a doable model. Under such an arrangement, crop loans

can be extended under tie-up arrangements with corporate for production of high quality produce

with stable marketing arrangements provided and only, provided the price setting mechanism

for the farmer is appropriate and fair.

2. Agri Service Centre Rabo India

Rabo India Finance Pvt Ltd. has established agri-service centres in rural areas in

cooperation with a number of agri-input and farm services companies. The services provided are

similar to those in contract farming, but with additional flexibility and a wider range of products

including inventory finance. Besides providing storage facilities, each centre rents out farm

machinery, provides agricultural inputs and information to farmers, arranges credit, sells other

services and provides a forum for farmers to market their products.

3. Non Traditional Markets

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Similarly, Mother Dairy Foods Processing, a wholly owned subsidiary of National

Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has established auction markets for horticulture producers in

Bangalore. The operations and maintenance of the market is done by NDDB. The project, with

an outlay of Rs.15 lakh, covers 200 horticultural farmers associations with 50,000 grower

members for wholesale marketing. Their produce is planned with production and supply

assurance and provides both growers and buyers a common platform to negotiate better rates.

4. Apni Mandi

Another innovation is that of The Punjab Mandi Board, which has experimented

with a farmers market to provide small farmers located in proximity to urban areas, direct

access to consumers by elimination of middlemen. This experiment known as "Apni Mandi"

belongs to both farmers and consumers, who mutually help each other. Under this arrangement a

sum of Rs. 5.2 lakh is spent for providing plastic crates to 1000 farmers. Each farmer gets 5

crates at a subsidized rate. At the mandi site, the Board provides basic infrastructure facilities. At

the farm level, extension services of different agencies are pooled in. These include inputs

subsidies, better quality seeds and loans from Banks. Apni Mandi scheme provides self-

employment to producers and has eliminated social inhibitions among them regarding the retail

sale of their produce.

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Chapter 7: Success Factors of Micro-Finance in India

Over the last ten years, successful experiences in providing finance to small

entrepreneur and producers demonstrate that poor people, when given access to responsive and

timely financial services at market rates, repay their loans and use the proceeds to increase their

income and assets. This is not surprising since the only realistic alternative for them is to borrow

from informal market at an interest much higher than market rates. Community banks, NGOs

and grass root savings and credit groups around the world have shown that these microenterprise

loans can be profitable for borrowers and for the lenders, making microfinance one of the most

effective poverty reducing strategies.

A. For NGOs

1. The field of development itself expands and shifts emphasis with the pull of ideas, and

NGOs perhaps more readily adopt new ideas, especially if the resources required are

small, entry and exit are easy, tasks are (perceived to be) simple and peoples acceptance

is high all characteristics (real or presumed) of microfinance.

2. Canvassing by various actors, including the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural

Development (NABARD), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Friends

of Womens World Banking (FWWB), Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK), Council for

Advancement of Peoples Action and Rural Technologies (CAPART), Rashtriya Gramin

Vikas Nidhi (RGVN), various donor funded programmes especially by the International

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Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP), World Bank and Department for International Development, UK (DFID)], and

lately commercial banks, has greatly added to the idea pull. Induced by the worldwide

focus on microfinance, donor NGOs too have been funding microfinance projects. One

might call it the supply push.

3. All kinds of things from khadi spinning to Nadep compost to balwadis do not produce

such concrete results and sustained interest among beneficiaries as microfinance. Most

NGO-led microfinance is with poor women, for whom access to small loans to meet dire

emergencies is a valued outcome. Thus, quick and high customer satisfaction is the

USP that has attracted NGOs to this trade.

4. The idea appears simple to implement. The most common route followed by NGOs is

promotion of SHGs. It is implicitly assumed that no technical skill is involved. Besides,

external resources are not needed as SHGs begin with their own savings. Those NGOs

that have access to revolving funds from donors do not have to worry about financial

performance any way. The chickens will eventually come home to roost but in the first

flush, it seems all so easy.

5. For many NGOs the idea of organising forming a samuha has inherent appeal.

Groups connote empowerment and organising women is a double bonus.

6. Finally, to many NGOs, microfinance is a way to financial sustainability. Especially for

the medium-to-large NGOs that are able to access bulk funds for on-lending, for example

from SIDBI, the interest rate spread could be an attractive source of revenue than an

uncertain, highly competitive and increasingly difficult-to-raise donor funding.

B. For Financial Institutions and banks

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Microfinance has been attractive to the lending agencies because of demonstrated

sustainability and of low costs of operation. Institutions like SIDBI and NABARD are hard

nosed bankers and would not work with the idea if they did not see a long term engagement

which only comes out of sustainability (that is economic attractiveness).

On the supply side, it is also true that it has all the trappings of a business enterprise, its output is

tangible and it is easily understood by the mainstream. This also seems to sound nice to the

government, which in the post liberalisation era is trying to explain the logic of every rupee

spent. That is the reason why microfinance has attracted mainstream institutions like no other

developmental project.

Perhaps the most important factor that got banks involved is what one might call the policy push.

Given that most of our banks are in the public sector, public policy does have some influence on

what they will or will not do. In this case, policy was followed by diligent, if meandering,

promotional work by NABARD. The policy change about a decade ago by RBI to allow banks to

lend to SHGs was initially followed by a seven-page memo by NABARD to all bank chairmen,

and later by sensitisation and training programmes for bank staff across the country. Several

hundred such programmes were conducted by NGOs alone, each involving 15 to 20 bank staff,

all paid for by NABARD. The policy push was sweetened by the NABARD refinance scheme

that offers much more favourable terms (100% refinance, wider spread) than for other rural

lending by banks. NABARD also did some system setting work and banks lately have been

given targets. The canvassing, training, refinance and close follow up by NABARD has resulted

in widespread bank involvement.

Moreover, for banks the operating cost of microfinance is perhaps much less than for pure MFIs.

The banks already have a vast network of branches. To the extent that an NGO has already

promoted SHGs and the SHG portfolio is performing better than the rest of the rural (if not the

entire) portfolio, microfinance via SHGs in the worst case would represent marginal addition to

cost and would often reduce marginal cost through better capacity utilisation. In the process the

bank also earns brownie points with policy makers and meets its priority sector targets.

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It does not take much analysis to figure out that the market for financial services for the 50-60

million poor households of I

Rahul Project on Micro Finance

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Transcript of Rahul Project on Micro Finance