CURRENT SITUATION
Within this context of relative optimism, there are certain aspects that merit attention:
- There are countries, especially in Asia, in which microfinance does not receive a sufficient level of interest from the authorities. Within this scenario, there are organisations of considerable size within the group referred to as NGOs that are attracting the public’s savings, especially from people within the lower income brackets, without the appropriate level of supervision. The same may be said of the systems of cooperative savings and credit systems whose institutions are not under the direct or indirect supervision of the body responsible for banking supervision, and this situation crops up often in all the geographical areas covered by this Global Outlook.
- As has been mentioned, the governments of certain countries, especially in Latin America and Asia, are intervening in the microfinance business in ways that distort its development. Such is the case of first-tier banks that do not apply criteria of sustainability or subsidy programmes that have a negative impact on the system.
- The offer of financial products and services for microenterprises is being extended, albeit somewhat slowly. It is only to be hoped that as this intermediation opens up to local and international commercial banks it will favour the inclusion in this offer of financial products and services of the type that are already being offered to other segments of the population or in other countries with more developed financial systems.
- There are occasions in which certain institutions are obtaining very high profit margins in regions in which there is awareness of the business. Faced with this situation, certain donors have embarked upon a reflection process, although it is not understood to be a generalised attitude.
- The global financial crisis we are experiencing today might affect those institutions that intermediate with microenterprises, in the first instance impacting on their liquidity and, if the problems persist, on their solvency.
