Morality Play in Nicaragua
2/21/11
Barbara Magnoni in the February issue of MicroCapital Monitor (gated) on who came through the Nicaraguan crisis looking good, and who didn't:
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Post Mortem of a Microfinance Institution
9/2/10
At the IDB’s annual FOROMIC conference in El Salvador in 2007, I knew there was a bubble as I watched investment funds competing to get face time with a number of Nicaraguan MFIs. Already, the market had grown substantially since 2004, Findesa (now Banex) had a loan portfolio of US$125 million, up from US$33 million at the end of 2004. I wondered why it made sense to lend to so many small MFIs in one country with 5 million people, 600,000 informal sector workers and 300,000 credit clients.
Death of a Microfinance Institution
8/9/10
Four years ago, the Dutch bank ABN AMRO commissioned a report from CGD on what makes some microfinance institutions succeed as businesses. I wrote it with Uzma Qureshi. We began the project by networking, looking for good people to talk to and good institutions to learn from. Perhaps it was Beth Rhyne who pointed us to Gabriel Solorzano, the founding head of FINDESA in Nicaragua. We called him.
Who Inflated the Microcredit Bubbles?
3/27/10
A couple of weeks ago I wrote:
If there were not so much finance for microfinance, the industry's weaknesses would not be so dangerous. Yes, the industry should reform, for example by setting up credit bureaus. But these things are easier said than done and take time. Hypergrowth robs the industry of time.
Ad Challenges Nicaraguan “Movimiento de No Pago”
9/24/09
Chale Espinosa sent me these scans of a full page ad placed in the Nicaraguan paper La Prensa yesterday by 25 international funders of microfinance. They are evidently worried about the growing political power of a movement for non-payment or cancellation of microcredit debts. I cannot provide much more context because I lack it myself. Perhaps others can fill it in. English text courtesy of Google Translate below.