The Implications of Increased Commercialization of the Microfinance Industry
Lugar y fecha de publicación:What can we learn from the discussions that followed the Compartamos IPO?
MFI Solutions, LLC, USA
La Colmena Milenaria, A.C., México
The material summarized in this paper is a small - but representative - portion of the material related to the Compartamos IPO that has appeared in the past year. Clearly the event has attracted a great deal of interest, has stimulated vigorous discussion and debate, and that discussion still continues.
Now, a year after the IPO, much discussion has transitioned beyond the specifics of the Compartamos IPO and is focusing more in the issues of future IPO trends, the implications of new, profit-maximizing investors entering the industry, and various possible action steps in the area of consumer protection that should be explored and implemented.
Our hope is that this paper helps to stimulate continued discussion of the implications of increased commercialization of the microfinance industry. Most do argue that commercialization is on the inevitable increase. Therefore, if this consensus view is correct, the microfinance industry is entering a new phase of its life cycle. We would argue that we are all obliged to seriously analyze the implications of this change on the future of the industry. What we in the industry have dedicated ourselves to create and build over the past several decades is on the cusp of change, and the implications of that change have not yet been fully analyzed or articulated. We should do so now.
