Technical Guide: Performance and Social Indicators for Microfinance Institutions

This  Guide provides the definition, interprets the meaning, identifies potential pitfalls, and provides regional benchmark values for the most commonly used performance indicators used by the microfinance industry. Additionally, MicroRate has added a section for each indicator, “How this relates to the traditional banking sector” to make the guide more useful to investors who are new to microfinance.

While many other indicators could be considered, the ones included are important indicators that, when taken together, provide a reasonable overview of the performance, risk and financial condition of an MFI as well as insight into its social performance. The indicators included in this guide are organized into five sections: 

• Portfolio Quality;
• Efficiency & Productivity;
• Financial Management;
• Profitability;
• Social Performance.