Paper
Eastern Europe and Central Asia 2009: Microfinance Analysis and Benchmarking Report
Analyzing MFI performance in the ECA region
This report analyzes how MFIs in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region performed and coped with heightened risks in 2008.
The report looks at overall structure of the market as well as trends in outreach for the past three years. It finds that:
- Microcredit and deposit services had slowed down;
- Credit unions remain the most numerous players;
- Microfinance banks in the Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) reined in growth;
- Branchless banking solutions require new regulatory approaches;
- Industry stakeholders and policy makers consider consumer protection issues as increasingly important;
- Scale of deposit mobilization by nonbank MFIs is insufficient;
- Issues related to preserving transforming MFIs’ social mission have arisen;
- CEE received the highest portion of donor and investor funding;
- Debt instruments were mostly used in the ECA;
- Most loans to MFIs were extended in hard currency;
- Higher financial cost and deteriorating portfolio quality squeezed profit margins;
- Little was achieved in efficiency gains despite rise in loan balances;
- Staff and branch growth slowed down, along with outreach growth;
- Credit risk increased, and was highest in CEE and Russia.
About this Publication
Published
