Swiss Microfinance Investments Report

This report aims at contributing to the transparency of the microfinance investment universe. It complements the global, annually published aggregate report on microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) that Symbiotics has been producing since 2007, and shows disaggregated data for the Swiss subset of global MIVs. It follows a first report on this subset published by Symbiotics in collaboration with the Swiss Development Agency (SDC) in December 2011.

The last four years brought some important developments for Swiss microfinance investments. We have seen growing investment volumes worldwide but in particular through the Swiss vehicles. Financial performance has peaked up again since 2014, liquidity came down to the targeted level, and risk diversification improved. At the same time, social performance reporting of MIVs has become more visible and seems to attract more interest. This is a reminder of the so-called double-bottom line objective of microfinance and financial inclusion, which are, last but not least, investments for the development of low-income populations and marginalized economies.