Most everyone interested in microfinance knows the story of Grameen, either because somebody gave us Yunus’ Banker to the Poor or because of his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. In either case, one of the notable “aha” moments for Yunus was the realization that banks didn’t serve the poor in Bangladesh. Microfinance Institutions were quickly able to step in and fill the gap.

Sri Lanka shows just how big that gap can be. Microfinance has been so successful in Sri Lanka that an estimated 60% of the population has accessed financial services through MFIs. In addition to the traditional first phase of microfinance, microcredit, Sri Lankans are also great savers with “75% of households having saved in a financial institution.” For more, see the full article in the Daily Mirror.

CREDIT, a licensed microfinance institution in Cambodia since May 2004, has raised almost $2,000,000 on Kiva over the past 27 months. However, it hasn’t always been a MFI — the faith based organization was started in 1993 by World Relief US in Cambodia and was registered as a private limited liability company (LLC) in 2003. Today, World Relief Corporation has a 74% shareholding in the company, World Relief Canada owns 17% and World Hope International has the remaining 9% share. At the end of 2007, CREDIT had a portfolio of US$10.3 million in outstanding loans reaching 18,771 clients. There are some interesting statistics about the MFI on their Kiva profile — 91.3% of their loans are to women, with an average loan size of $737 and their repayment rate is 100%.  The average interest rate borrowers pay to CREDIT is 11%, which is half the average interest rate for all field partners on Kiva. If you ask me, that’s an impressive track record.

Vision: Economically active poor and entrepreneurs have the opportunity to develop the livelihoods and experience full and productive lives.

Mission: To provide inclusive financial services tailored to the clients’ needs through excellent services and positive relationship while maintaining organizational sustainability.

CORE Values:
Motivation - Christ’s love

Values about clients -

• Committed to the poor and upholding their dignity
• Belief in the God-given potential of the clients
• Clients are business partners not beneficiaries

I was lucky enough to visit Southeast Asia back in March and got a general feel for what everyday life was like. I can’t pin down exactly what it was, but Cambodia was definitely my favorite country I visited on the trip that included Thailand, Vietnan and Hong Kong. Whereas in places like Vietnam and Thailand, it seemed many (not all) of the locals wanted to help you only to get your money; the people in Cambodia seemed genuinely interested in helping others. Oh yea, and that temple called Angkor Wat is beautiful. I’m certainly going to make it a point to visit a CREDIT office next time I travel to Cambodia.

Microfinance has been around for decades, but no country has benefited from it more than Bangladesh. Bangladesh is one of the most populous countries and has one of the highest poverty rates in the world. I have known about the great stuff that Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank have been doing in Bangladesh, from the original Grameen Bank to some of the newer branches such as Grameen Danone (affordable nutritious foods for the poor) to Grameen Kalyan (Health and welfare services). However, recently I was reading an articles in Forbes titled “Is Bigger Better”, that was talking about another great microfinance institution called BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee). In the article, Forbes talks about the success of BRAC in Bangladesh and whether or not Fazle Hasan Abed will be able to transfer the success over to Africa.

There has been a lot of great progress all over the world to alleviate poverty, however, it seems that most of the advancements are in pockets. It will be interesting to watch all the different microfinance pockets around the world come together to help eradicate poverty worldwide.