A few weeks ago I discussed an article about how Morgan Stanely was pulling its microfinance funding after trying to make a big push into the sector. Although Mogan Stanley defended that claim, I was pretty skeptical that they were actually going to make anything happen. From what I have always known, microfinance has been in the hands of NGOs and entrepeneurs who are trying to make a difference in the world. However, things are definitely starting to change as microfinance is being picked up in the mainstream media. In his article Big Banks Move Into Microfinance-For-Profit (C, BCS, GE) Gregory Davis briefly talks about big corporations leading the way into the microfinance industry. From Citigroup and Barclays, to GE, big companies are starting to invest millions of dollars into microfinance. Although I am happy to hear that big corporations are moving in the right direction, it got me thinking about what their real motives are. Initially I was assuming that they are in it for the money, to earn a profit from charging people high interest rates. However, I recently came across an article, The Green Marketing Machine, and I began to wonder how much of the investing was just for PR. Greenwashing, which is a term used to describe how companies are misleading their consumers by leading them to believe that their practices are environmentally friendly, has started to become more popular as people are becoming more aware of what is going on in the world. Although I don’t think that companies are doing this maliciously, I would be naive to think that they are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. At this stage, I think it is to early to tell how big of an impact big corporations will really have, but I will definitely continue to write about anything that I hear. I encourage other to do the same, because whether their intentions are good or greedy, I think that the attention that will be brought to microfinance will ultimately be beneficial.