MICROFINANCE for bankers and investors:
UNDERSTANDING THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF THE MARKET AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID

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CONTENTS
Preface vii
Introduction xiii
Part 1. Understanding Clients, the Market, and the Opportunities
1. The BOP Market Up Close (and Personal) 3
2. Who Serves the BOP Market—and Who Doesn’t? 11
3. Four Critical Challenges in the BOP Market 18
4. Products for the BOP Market 27
5. Three Products: Insurance, Housing Finance,
and Remittances 34
Part 2. Models and Corporate Choices
6. Corporate Choices 47
7. Commercial Banks as Microlenders 57
8. Partners at the Last Mile: Retailers, Banking Agents, and
Insurance Companies 66
9. Models of Financing Inclusive Finance 77
Part 3. The Emerging Industry of Inclusive Finance
10. Building the Infrastructure for Inclusive Finance:
The Enabling Environment 95
11. Credit Bureaus and Credit Scoring 103
12. Last-Mile Technologies 111
13. The Technological Base: Payment Systems and
Banking Software 120
14. Building the Market for Investing in Microfinance 126
Part 4. Socially Responsible Returns
15. Approaches to Social Responsibility 139
16. Client Protection and Proconsumer Inclusive Finance 148
17. Measuring the Social Bottom Line 158
• v
Cases 1. Banking Models
ICICI Bank: Shaping Inclusive Finance in India 167
Citigroup Fosters Commercial Relationships with
Microfinance Institutions 175
Banco Pichincha and the Service Company Model 181
Banco Bradesco: Twenty-First Century Postal Banking 188
Cases 2. New Players: Retailers, Insurers, and Telecoms
Banco Azteca: A Retailer Surprises Mexico’s
Financial Giants 195
Vodafone: A Bold Move into Financial Services for
Kenya’s Poor 204
G-Cash: Filipinos Text Their Way to Mobile Banking 209
Cases 3. Industry Developers
Visa: Social Benefit Systems That Benefit Everyone 219
Temenos: Creating Core Banking Systems for
Microfinance 226
Creditinfo: First Credit Bureau in Kazakhstan 231
Cases 4. Financing Models
MF Analytics and Citibank: The Securitization of
BRAC Loans 239
Credit Suisse: Bringing Compartamos to the Market with a
Successful IPO 245
Sequoia Capital: Private Equity and Indian
Microfinance 252
Cases 5. Social Responsibility
ANZ Bank: If the Mountain Will Not Come to Us,
Then We Must Go to the Mountain 261
Equity Bank Goes to Schools 266
Triodos Bank and the Global Reporting Initiative 272
Acknowledgments 279
Endnotes 281
References 299
Index 317