Author Archives: admin

Incidence of Loan Default in Group-lending Programme

Mani Arul.Nandhi

This report explores the reasons and costs of hidden loan delinquency, despite high group repayment rates prevalent in the group lending mechanism. In a Joint Liability Group, if one of the members fails to repay a loan fully, the responsibility … Read More

Impact of EKO’s Simplibank on the Saving Behaviour and Practices of Low-income Customers: The Indian Experience

Mani Arul.Nandhi

This report presents insights from a study that aims at understanding the impact of EKO’s mobile money on the savings behavior and practices of low income users and its transformative potential on the economic lives of the users in terms … Read More

Five Years of Researching Financial Services for the Poor

IFMR LEAD

This report, a collection of key CMF studies conducted over the last five years, is meant to serve as a reference document for policymakers, practitioners, researchers and others interested in financial services for the poor. More specifically, the studies presented … Read More

Multiple Loans: How Frequently do Rural Poor Opt for Multiple Borrowing?

Deepti Kc, Sebastien Gachot

This study throws light on the patterns of multiple borrowing that was prevalent in Andhra Pradesh. Following up on the Access to Finance Study, CMF visited 428 households in two districts of Andhra Pradesh. 36% of 428 households (153 households) … Read More

Futures Prices Information for Small and Medium Farmers

Samik Adhikari, Gautam Gustav Bastian, Shawn Cole and David Yanagizawa-Drott

This policy paper reports on a series of interventions designed to enable farmers to use information from futures markets with the goal of helping them improve agricultural planning and decision-making, reduce their risk exposure, and increase harvest time revenue.

Rethinking RBI Regulations for MFIs

Deepti Kc and Ashok Rao

This policy note reviews recent amendments to RBI regulations, and examines whether these regulations align with the requirements of microfinance clients. The note also puts forth recommendations for reforming guidelines regarding the eligibility of MFIs for priority sector lending.

Policy Lessons from Marketing Monsoon Onset Insurance in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh

Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Yale University; Lisa C. Nestor – Centre for Micro Finance, IFMR; Surabhi Agrawal – Centre for Micro Finance, IFMR; Tetyana Zelenska – Innovations for Poverty Action

This policy note summarizes evidence of the existence of informal insurance networks and the extent of such informal exchanges in community level financial management. It provides information regarding the interaction of the informal and formal insurance markets, assessing the demand … Read More

Can Formal Banking Raise the Incomes of the Poor?

Rohini Pande, Shawn Cole, Anitha Sivasankaran, Gautam Bastian and Katherine Durlache

This policy note reports the results of a systematic review of the empirical literature investigating the impact of access to formal banking services on the income of the poor. Taking a functional approach to finance, the authors define formal banking … Read More

Social Networks and Microfinance

Abhijit Banerjee, Arun G. Chandrasekhar, Esther Duflo and Matthew Jackson

The study of how network structures influence economic activity is increasingly becoming the subject of interest within Development Economics. This note summarises patterns of social interaction influence an individual’s economic behaviour including employment, career choice, consumption, investment, risk sharing and … Read More

The Base of Pyramid Distribution Challenge: Evaluating Alternate Distribution Models of Energy Products for Rural Base of Pyramid in India

Sachin Shukla, Sreyamsa Bairiganjan

This paper analyzes product distribution choices available in rural BoP markets and helps enterprises evaluate the key drivers of distribution for successful goto-market strategies. It is based on extensive field work with commercial and social enterprises, rural BoP consumers and … Read More