Microfinanzas BBVA Foundation

Over the past 10 years there has been highly significant progress in regulatory matters in almost all countries of this region. Stand-out advances include microfinance legislation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Georgia, which came into force in 2007 largely as a result of pressure exerted by their respective trade associations.

Cooperative institutions are subject to strict regulation and supervision in almost all eastern European countries. In Russia, the Ukraine, Albania and the countries formerly controlled by the Soviet Union there is supervision by competent bodies but problems of capacity linger on. Other countries such as Georgia and Armenia have regulated their financial cooperative institutions in the past five years, and this practice has been extended to other Central Asian countries such as Azerbaijan which did not yet have regulations governing cooperative institutions. The main agent pushing for change has been the WOCCU.