MFTransparency announces Partnership with Pakistan Microfinance Network

MFTransparency and the Pakistan Microfinance Network announce transparent pricing data collection partnership to promote responsible microfinance

LANCASTER, PA, USA & ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN, 22 January 2013

MicroFinance Transparency and the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) today announced the formation of their partnership in addressing microloan pricing transparency in Pakistan.

PMN, the national association for retail players in Pakistan’s microfinance industry, will work with MFTransparency, the industry leader in transparent pricing, to collect and publish comparable data on the interest rates and fees charged to microfinance clients in Pakistan.  As a prerequisite for responsible pricing and a key element of consumer protection, transparent pricing leads to increased competition and better-informed decisions by all industry stakeholders. The partnership between MFTransparency and PMN will result in increased knowledge of pricing within Pakistan’s microfinance industry.

PMN will act as MFTransparency’s implementation partner in the data collection process of the Transparent Pricing Initiative in Pakistan. This initiative will make the prices for the Pakistan microfinance market available for the first time in history.

Chuck Waterfield, CEO of MFTransparency commented “We couldn’t be more pleased about this.  We’ve had a solid relationship with PMN since the first months that MFT was founded, but we never had the funding in place to move forward.  We can now do so, and this will be our first country of the 30 we have done in which the national network will be fully engaged in the first round of pricing data collection.”

Syed Mohsin Ahmed, CEO of PMN commented “A pricing initiative for Pakistan’s microfinance industry is one of the foundations for the PMN’s work in responsible finance in Pakistan, more specifically, within client protection. We hope that with a standardized approach to calculating pricing of microfinance services in Pakistan will help microfinance clients and stakeholders understand the product offerings more closely. We are delighted to partner with MFTransparency on this important initiative.”

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About MicroFinance Transparency

MicroFinance Transparency (MFTransparency) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 2008 with the purpose of facilitating transparent markets through pricing disclosure, education and policy advisory. MFTransparency represents an industry movement toward transparent practices and responsible microfinance. Based in the United States, the group has organized transparent pricing efforts in nearly 30 countries on four continents. For more information please visit www.mftransparency.org.  Grameen Bank’s Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Elizabeth Littlefield, former CEO of CGAP, as well as over 900 industry professionals and organizations have committed to transparent pricing by endorsing MFTransparency and its initiative.

About PMN (Pakistan Microfinance Network)

Registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission [SECP] in April 2001 under Section 42 of the Companies Ordinance, PMN is a member driven network with a vision to expand access to formal financial services in Pakistan. PMN’s mission is to support the sector, in particular retail MFPs, to enhance scale, quality, diversity and sustainability in order to achieve inclusive financial services. PMN’s goal is to support retail microfinance providers by strengthening them institutionally, and work towards ensuring an enabling environment for microfinance in the country.