The Role of Regulation

Modern microfinance presents some features that imply a revision of regulation and supervision features adopted so far. First of all, it has extensively been pointed out how the range of products and services offered by MFIs has significantly grown throughout the years, including services that are not strictly financial — such as ‘social intermediation’ services — as well as financial services, which imply a greater management complexity for MFIs and more risks for the overall financial system. Moreover, the number of intermediaries that offer microfinance services has widely increased, and a larger variety of typology of institutions that offer small-amount financial services to financially excluded customers has also developed. Finally, following the Goals of the Millennium, the number of clients that have been reached by microfinance institutions has significantly increased. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.