Microfinance Institutions Maintain Rebound, but Solvency Questions Loom

To help fill the void of publicly available data on how COVID-19 is impacting the microfinance sector, CGAP and Symbiotics – a leading microfinance investment vehicle – have partnered to analyze data on the performance of the more than 300 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Symbiotics global portfolio. This snapshot is the second in the series, Snapshots: MFIs During the COVID-19 Crisis.

The latest Symbiotics indicators show that, as of October 2020, microfinance institutions (MFIs) remain resilient and have managed to stop the negative trends reported in the first half of 2020. However, profitability levels could weaken further, depending on the ability of MFIs to recover their restructured portfolios and manage potential solvency challenges.