Media Stories

• Microfinance Focus

  35 Indian microfinance institutions shared complete pricing data to date: MFTransparency

  35 microfinance institutions in India have participated so far in the Transparent Pricing Initiative by MFTransparency in India by submitting complete microloan product information and pricing data. (2010-07-29) Link >>

• MicroCapital

  MFTransparency Transparent Pricing Initiative in Malawi Launch, August 31, 2010 in Lilongwe, Malawi

  Training will be provided on pricing transparency as it relates to microfinance institutions, regulators, funders and other support organizations. (2010-07-23) Link >>

• Mundo Microfinanzas

  Ecuador: D-MIRO, en la delantera por la carrera de la transparencia.

  La gran carrera por la transparencia llegó al Ecuador. En el mes de abril del presente MFTransparency lanzó su Iniciativa de Transparencia de Precios en Ecuador. El proyecto se inició con una serie de talleres y reuniones que tomaron lugar en Quito, Ambato y Guayaquil. Estos eventos convirtieron a Ecuador en el tercer país de América Latina en participar en la Iniciativa desatando una feroz competencia. Desde el lanzamiento del proyecto las IMFs locales han trabajado ardua e intensivamente en recolectar su información y datos de precios utilizando la herramienta de recolección de data de MFTransparency, con la esperanza de convertirse en la primera institución en obtener el Sello de Transparencia. ¿Quién ganó la carrera? Continúe leyendo…
  (2010-07-15) Link >>

• Portal de Microfinanzas

  La Carrera por la Transparencia en Ecuador

  La gran carrera por la transparencia llegó al Ecuador. En el mes de Abril del presente MFTransparency lanzó su Iniciativa de Transparencia de Precios en Ecuador. El proyecto se inició con una serie de talleres y reuniones que tomaron lugar en Quito, Ambato y Guayaquil. Estos eventos convirtieron a Ecuador en el tercer país de América  Latina en participar en la Iniciativa de Transparencia de Precios desatando una feroz competencia. Desde el lanzamiento del proyecto las IMFs locales han trabajado ardua e intensivamente en recolectar su información y datos de precios utilizando la herramienta de recolección de data de MFTransparency, con la esperanza de convertirse en la primera institución en obtener el Sello de Transparencia. ¿Quién ganó la carrera? Continúe leyendo… (2010-07-14) Link >>

• European Microfinance Platform

  MFTransparency Featured in e-MFP Newsletter

  Chuck Waterfield looks back on MFTransparency’s activities and the progress made since spring 2009, when e-MFP invited him to write an article about the start of this important initiative. (2010-07-06) Link >>

• MicroCapital

  MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MFTransparency Brings Launch of Transparent Pricing Initiative to Bolivia

  MFTransparency recently expanded its work to launch its transparent pricing initiative in both Ecuador and Bolivia.  The initiative is being funded by the Ford Foundation.

  The Bolivia initiative, also sponsored by the Dutch microfinance network MicroNed, was launched with workshops in both La Paz and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and the Ecuador initiative was launced with workshops in Quito, Ambato and Guayaquil.

  (2010-06-16) Link >>

• Portal de Microfinanzas

  Entrevista con ASOFIN y FINRURAL: Iniciativa de Transparencia de Precios en Bolivia

  LANCASTER, PA, EEUU & LA PAZ, BOLIVIA, 9 de Junio, 2010 — MFTransparency lanzó recientemente la Iniciativa de Transparencia de Precios en Bolivia.

  MFTransparency conversó con Fernando Prado, Secretario Ejecutivo de ASOFIN y Néstor Castro, Gerente de FINRURAL sobre los beneficios de la Iniciativa en Bolivia, los desafíos que enfrentará MFTransparency en el mercado local y las estratégicas para tener éxito en este esfuerzo.

  (2010-06-10) Link >>

• International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions

  INAFI Executive Director Attends CONVERGENCES 2015 Forum and Microfinance Transparency Meeting

  Ms Ndiaye Ba, Executive Director of INAFI, attended a meeting to discuss partnerships with MicroFinance Transparency, a new United States non-profit organization which aims to publish the interest rates and other basic information about the lending practices of microfinance institutions (MFIs) worldwide. (2010-06-09) Link >>

• Microfinance Focus

  MFTransparency-The MasterCard Foundation partnership for Fair and Transparent Microfinance

  MFTransparency a global initiative for fair and transparent pricing in the microfinance industry has entered into a partnership with The MasterCard Foundation to promote fair and transparent pricing in the microfinance industry in eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. (2010-06-09) Link >>

• Portal de Microfinanzas

  MFTransparency y la Red Financiera Rural estrenan la Iniciativa de Transparencia de Precios en Ecuad

  LANCASTER, PA, EEUU & QUITO, ECUADOR, 31 de Mayo, 2010 —  MFTransparency impulsó la Iniciativa de Transparencia de Precios en Ecuador en colaboración con su socio estratégico local, la Red Financiera Rural.

  (2010-06-03) Link >>

• Microfinance Focus

  MFTransparency launched Transparent Pricing Initiative in Bolivia

  Microfinance Focus, June 1, 2010: Hosting two workshops in La Paz and Santa Cruz de la Sierra during the first week of May, MFTransparency launched its Transparent Pricing Initiative in Bolivia. Local microfinance networks ASOFIN and FINRURAL are its strategic partners in this effort and the initiative is sponsored by the Ford Foundation and MicroNed to promote fair and transparent pricing in the microfinance industry. (2010-06-01) Link >>

• Governance Now

  Microfinance industry is shifting its agenda to social performance

  Microfinance in India still has considerable geographical divide. The southern states have done well in terms of taking microfinance initiatives as well as in uptake. On the other hand, it’s still taking time for microfinance to pick up in northern states. (2010-05-30) Link >>

• Portal de Microfinanzas

  MFTransparency Impulsa la Transparencia de Precios en Bolivia

  MFTransparency ha lanzado su Iniciativa de Transparencia de Precios en Bolivia con 2 seminarios en La Paz y Santa Cruz de la Sierra durante la primera semana de Mayo del presente. Socios estratégicos de MFTransparency en este esfuerzo son las dos redes microfinancieras locales ASOFIN y FINRURAL. La Iniciativa de Transparencia de Precios en Bolivia está patrocinada por la Fundación Ford y MicroNed con el fin de promover precios justos y transparente en la industria de microfinanzas. (2010-05-27) Link >>

• Microfinance Insights

  MFTransparancy announced the disclosure of the pricing data from Azerbaijan

  Following the dissemination of two pilot countries – Bosnia and Herzegovina and Cambodia – MFTransparancy announced the disclosure of the pricing data from Azerbaijan. The data presents a number of interesting trends in pricing practices, product types as well as differentiating factors that underlie the variations in pricing.

  (2010-05-27) Link >>

• Microfinance Focus

  MFTransparency to host Webinar on ‘New Microfinance Transparent Pricing Data from Azerbaijan’

  Microfinance Focus, May 26, 2010: MFTransparency, a global initiative for fair and transparent pricing in the microfinance industry is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, June 1, 2010 from 7:00 AM -8:30 AM EST, launching the true-cost microfinance pricing data from Azerbaijan. The discussion will interpret the data and its effect on market conditions as well as answer questions from a range of stakeholders and the public. The discussions will explore pricing practices, variations across MFIs, product types and sizes as well as underlying price differentiating factors such as geography and regulation. As with all countries, MFTransparency presents the prices in Azerbaijan using a Price Curve, which will play a prominent role in explaining price conditions during the webinar. (2010-05-26) Link >>

• MicroCapital

  In Ecuador, Cap on Interest Rates Pressures Microlenders to Increase Loan Sizes (...)

  Ecuador’s central bank, Banco Central del Ecuador (BCE), recently further reduced the cap on annual interest rates to 30.5 percent from 33.9 percent for retail microlenders, and to 27.5 percent from 33.3 percent for all others lenders. Since 2007, when the national government enacted banking reforms allowing the central bank to set a maximum interest rate for all banking institutions, the cap for microlenders has been dropping. According to Javier Vaca, the executive director of Red Financiera Rural (RFR), an Ecuadorian network of organizations that is focused on facilitating and promoting access to financial services, this forces microlenders to increase the average amount of their loans. Some are left with no choice but to sell their portfolios to larger institutions with lower fixed costs. Mr. Vaca claims that four unnamed microbanks have increased their average lending amount to USD 2,500 from USD 1,500. Meanwhile, smaller lenders have increased their average loan size to USD 600 from an average of USD 200. There is an increasing risk that people needing small loan amounts will no longer be served.

  (2010-05-14) Link >>

• MicroCredit Enterprises

  Obama Calls Out Microfinance: Taking the Measure of Microfinance

  As the need for Microfinance Transparency (backed by many microfinance leaders) demonstrates, the microfinance industry has been less than honest with the donors and investors who back it, not to mention its impoverished client-borrowers. True APR loan interest rates charged by overseas microfinance institutions remain undisclosed in most parts of the world. (2010-04-26) Link >>

• Daily Nation

  Lender to women joins global policing group

  The short rains which stated in earnest in December and the current long rain season has been a nightmare for many dairy farmers in the country. (2010-04-21) Link >>

• Microfinance Insights

  Exclusive Interview with MFTransparency executives Chuck Waterfield and Alexandra Fiorillo

  MicroFinance Transparency Urges Indian MFIs to Share Pricing, Interest Rate Data. Microfinance Transparency is currently on a whistle-stop tour of India to speak with MFIs and industry stakeholders, as part of their worldwide Transparent Pricing Initiative, which urges MFIs to share their pricing and interest data to improve transparency and bring credibility to the sector. Microfinance Insights caught up with MFTransparency executives Chuck Waterfield and Alexandra Fiorillo, to speak with them about their experience in India so far. (2010-04-16) Link >>

• New York Times

  Many Borrowers of Microloans Now Find the Price is Too High

  Drawn by the prospect of hefty profits from even the smallest of loans, a raft of banks and financial institutions now dominate the field, with some charging interest rates of 100 percent or more.

  “We created microcredit to fight the loan sharks; we didn’t create microcredit to encourage new loan sharks,” Mr. Yunus recently said at a gathering of financial officials at the United Nations. “Microcredit should be seen as an opportunity to help people get out of poverty in a business way, but not as an opportunity to make money out of poor people.”

  “You can make money from the poorest people in the world — is that a bad thing, or is that just a business?” asked Mr. Waterfield of MFTransparency. “At what point do we say we have gone too far?”

  (2010-04-13) Link >>

• Microfinance Focus

  MFTransparency launches Transparent Pricing Initiative for Microfinance in India

  Microfinance Focus, April 12, 2010: Identifying Transparent Pricing as the emerging challenge for the microfinance industry world over, MFTransparency.org, a US based non-profit has launched its Transparent Pricing Initiative in India with 5 seminars across the country, in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai during April 12-19, 2010. (2010-04-12) Link >>

• Microfinance Insights

  MFInsights: A Conversation with Chuck Waterfield, CEO and President, MFTransparency

  As the microfinance sector picks up pace in improving industry practices, MFTransparency, a US-based nonprofit is working with microfinance institutions (MFIs) around the world to shed light on what has remained a dark and opaque corner of the microfinance business – the interest rates MFIs charge their clients. (2010-04-01) Link >>

• Microfinance Focus

  Indian NBFCs Microfinance Network MFIN to assess their transparency level, sources

  Microfinance Focus, Feb 25, 2010: Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), a newly formed body of NBFC-MFIs in India has decided to carry out an in-depth study of the status and level of transparency in its network members and suggest measures to improve the situation, if required, said sources in the industry. MFIN is planning to conduct the study in association with Microfinance Transparency (MFTransparency), a global initiative by Chuck Waterfield. (2010-02-22) Link >>

• European Microfinance Platform

  European Microfinance Week 2009: MFTransparency Client Protection Panel Video

  MFTransparency's client protection panel is featured as one of the most well-attended sessions at the 2009 European Week of Microfinance. The video of the panel is available on the European Microfinance Platform homepage. (2010-02-10) Link >>

• Enterprise Development and Microfinance

  MFTransparency Wins Award from “Enterprise Development and Microfinance”

  The winning entry in the 2oth anniversary edition of “Enterprise Development and Microfinance” was written by MFTransparency staff. (2010-01-09) Link >>

• A.J. Renold

  A.J. Renold of Opportunity International Blogs on MFTransparency

  Microfinance is a young and growing industry. Formal microfinance services such as savings, credit and insurance, have yet to reach a majority of the working poor around the world and thus there are many microfinance providers trying tap into this demand. (2009-12-28) Link >>

• Microfinance Focus

  MicroFinance Transparency Makes Top 10 Most Read New Initiatives in 2009

  Microfinance Focus, Dec. 26, 2009: The Microfinance Sector has witnessed several important new initiatives this year. Water, education and mobile banking were the favorite new segments. Our team has brought together the top 10 most read new initiatives. We will follow all the new initiatives, its successes, challenges and lessons learnt in the next year… (2009-12-27) Link >>

• Institute of Microfinance

  Bangladesh Seminar on `Microfinance Interest Rates and Transparency’

  The Institute of Microfinance (InM) and the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) jointly organized a two-day seminar titled ‘Microfinance Interest Rates and Transparency’ in Dhaka, Bangladesh on August 11 & 12, 2009. MFTransparency CEO & Founder Chuck Waterfield was a featured speaker at the event. (2009-12-09) Link >>

• Microfinance Focus

  Oikocredit partner first to offer microfinance pricing transparency data in Africa

  Microfinance Focus, Dec. 4, 2009: Oikocredit project partner PAWDEP is leading the way in microfinance pricing transparency in Africa. The Kenya-based Pamoja Women’s Development Programme became the first African microfinance institution to submit data to MFTransparency Transparent Pricing Initiative. (2009-12-04) Link >>

• Social Performance Indicators Blog

  The Quest for Transparent Pricing: MFTransparency Releases World’s First True-Cost Pricing Data

  Last week, MFTransparency – a global initiative for fair and transparent pricing in microfinance – published the world’s first true-cost pricing data. In an interview with MIX, Vice President Alexandra Fiorillo shares more about the initiative, its benefits to MFIs and clients, and findings from the first reports. (2009-11-11) Link >>

• Oikocredit

  Oikocredit supporting transparency in microfinance

  Oikocredit has renewed its support of transparency in the microfinance industry, sponsoring MFTransparency for the second year running. (2009-10-17) Link >>

• Microfinance Focus

  MicroFinance Transparency to drive transparent pricing in Africa

  MicroFinance Transparency (MFTransparency) will host a training workshop in Nairobi on oct. 19 in association with the 2009 AMT Microfinance Investor’s Fair to train industry professionals on pricing transparency and consumer protection. It will also mark the launch of MFTransparency’ s Transparent Pricing Initiative in Kenya. (2009-10-14) Link >>

• Gestión

  ONG y cooperativas darán a conocer costo de sus créditos

  MFTransparency has been featured in Peru's leading daily business newspaper, Gestión (http://gestion.pe/), for providing a portal of pricing information on microfinance institutions in the country. Featuring quotes from Founder Chuck Waterfield, this article highlights MFTransparency's contribution to consumer protection efforts and its upcoming data launch. (2009-10-13) Link >>

• MicroCapital.org

  Do Interest Rates Matter? Credit Demand in the Dhaka Slums

  This study attempts to show how sensitive borrowers are to rises in interest rates. The primary result of the study is that borrowers at SafeSave decreased loan demand significantly as a result of the increase in the interest rate. A one percent increase in the interest rate resulted in a range of .73 percent to .88 percent decrease in loan demand over the 12 month period. Additionally, less wealthy borrowers appear to decrease their loan demand more than wealthier borrowers due to the increase in interest rates. (2009-10-08) Link >>

• Microfinance Focus

  Azerbaizan takes lead to showcase transparency in microfinance

  Microfinance Focus, Oct. 1, 2009: With the negative media coverage in recent months, there is a collective need for transparency in microfinance sector. While some reports pointed out the high interest rates and the use of confusing product pricing, others have gone a step ahead to depict the microfinance institutions (MFIs) as no less than moneylenders. (2009-10-01) Link >>

• CGAP

  More transparency, please!

  MFTransparency has been featured on the CGAP Microfinance Blog as a leader in the global initiative for transparent pricing in microfinance. Author Christoph Kneiding highlights MFTransparency as the microfinance industry's answer to the lack of provisions for transparent pricing that are common among Western economies. Kneiding employs MFTransparency's approach of comparing loan size to APR for individual products, stating that through this method "what we already knew on an industry level can now be confirmed for the institution level: as loan sizes increase, interest rates are dropping." (2009-10-01) Link >>

• ACLEDA

  ACLEDA Recognized for Cambodia Transparent Pricing Initiative from MFTransparency

  On August 07, 2009, ACLEDA Bank received a certificate of recognition from MFTransparency, for being a global pioneer in the microfinance industry by participating in the Cambodia Transparent Pricing Initiative. (2009-09-01) Link >>

• The Financial Express

  MFIs in Bangladesh should be transparent in fixing lending rates

  MFTransparency led a 2-day seminar in Bangladesh on pricing transparency. During the inaugural sesssion, the Finance Minster of Bangladesh stated "Micro finance institutions (MFIs) should maintain transparency in determining their interest rates and there should be a guideline in this respect." For more information, refer to the story from the Financial Express. (2009-08-14) Link >>

• Think Change India

  Microfinance Transparency charged to clear the air

  This is great news and I commend the industry for recognizing its own responsibility to its clients and investors by providing such transparency.... Lets hope this is one part of a larger trend to further legitimize what is fast becoming an excellent toolkit for poverty reduction. (2009-07-10) Link >>

• e-MFP

  Implementing Pricing Transparency in Microfinance

  Microfinance has long been a highly transparent industry, and rightly proud of it. We share a wide variety of financial indicators about our MFIs. Unfortunately, the true price of microfinance loan products has never been accurately measured nor reported. For an industry born to “displace the moneylenders” by providing low-cost credit to the working poor, this is hard to imagine and even harder to explain. In addition, non-transparent pricing is a serious market imperfection that impedes efficiency, sound management decisions, and healthy consumer choice. Original Story: e-MFP Newsletter, page 3 (2009-04-20) Link >>

• Micro Capital

  MICROCAPITAL PAPER WRAP-UP: The State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report 2009

  THE NEED FOR PRICING TRANSPARENCY IN MICROFINANCE Chuck Waterfield, founder of Microfinance Transparency, writes that the true price of microfinance loan products has never been accurately measured nor reported. Microfinance loans, contrary to commercial loans, can quote an interest rate of three percent a month which results in an APR between 36 percent and 96 percent, depending on how this rate is applied. The same principles of transparent pricing applied within the commercial finance industry have not been applied to the microfinance industry. There has been intensive dialogue on this issue, and initiatives have been created in order to address non-transparent pricing, including the “Campaign for Client Protection” which began in April 2008, and another is MicroFinance Transparency. (2009-02-03) Link >>

• Microcredit Summit Campaign

  State of the Campaign Report

  The 2009 State of the Campaign Report contains an article on Pricing Transparency written by MFTransparency. See p. 15 of the report. The link gives access to a website where the entire report can be dowloaded in English, Spanish, and French. (2009-01-28) Link >>

• Malawi Daily Times

  Global body appeals for microfinance openness

  A 2009 report issued by Microcredit Summit based in Washington, US, says there is need for pricing transparency for microfinance institutions. The report issued on Monday by Microcredit Summit Campaign Director Sam Daley-Harris indicates that although the microfinance sector has globally been transparent, true prices for the sector’s loans and products have never been accurately measured. (2009-01-28) Link >>

• Voice of America

  Small Loans Grow in a Big Way

  As the microfinance industry grows, there are efforts to prevent abuses. .... a new effort based in the United States called MicroFinance Transparency. The aim is to prevent abuses by letting borrowers compare pricing information from different lenders. Its creator, Chuck Waterfield, calls it "an industry-based truth-in-lending effort." Borrowers, he says, are often misled about the true price of a loan. "For twenty years we set the price to cover the cost. Now, some organizations are setting the price to whatever they can get away with," he says. The first step is to publish information collected from eight countries. Chuck Waterfield says information from Peru, Bosnia and Cambodia will appear in February at the Web site mftransparency.org. He says the others, including at least one country from Africa, will follow a few months later. (2008-12-22) Link >>

• Financial Times

  The battle for the soul of microfinance

  The trouble is transparency. Competition works best when customers know what they’re paying and what they’re paying for, which is why lenders in the US have been required for the past 40 years to disclose their interest rates in a standardised format. Few microfinance institutions do the same thing, and the results can be baffling. “You have a borrower comparing two institutions across the street from each other, and she can’t tell which has the cheaper product,” complains Chuck Waterfield, the founder of a non-profit called Microfinance Transparency. “You couldn’t. Nobody could.” (2008-12-06) Link >>

• India Development Blog

  Is Transparent Pricing in Microfinance Necessary

  Does it seem like the obvious response to this question should be a “Yes!”? An interesting point made by Sanjay Sinha (M-CRIL), at one of the Conference sessions, was how communication would play a key role in ensuring that increased transparency would not backfire on the MFIs. (2008-11-13) Link >>

• Oikocredit

  First MFTransparency’s endorsement in the Netherlands

  On 4 October Oikocredit endorsed, as first Dutch-based organization, MicroFinance Transparency and announced a donation of € 20,000 in this initiative. MFTransparency’s mission is to be the venue for the microfinance industry to publicly demonstrate its commitment to pricing transparency, integrity and poverty alleviation. (2008-10-16) Link >>

• Grameen Foundation

  GF Joins Call to Safeguard Microfinance Clients

  Grameen Foundation joined 46 other organizations to support the launch of Microfinance Transparency at the Asia-Pacific Microcredit Summit, held in Bali, Indonesia, July 27-29. In a speech that became a keystone of the conference, Grameen Foundation board member Muhammad Yunus called for greater transparency by microfinance institutions, challenging lenders to publicly report interest rates and to set them no higher than that which will cover costs. (2008-09-01) Link >>

• Gulf Weekly

  Potential at bottom of pyramid

  In an effort to head off a potential crisis in the fast-expanding micro-finance industry, its leaders are adopting global truth-in-lending standards and creating a system for comparing loan terms offered by competing lenders. To manage the effort, a new self-monitoring organisation, MicroFinance Transparency, is being set up as the industry's policeman. The goal is to prevent companies from taking advantage of poor people with high interest rates and misleading credit offers. The initiative was announced at a micro-credit conference in Bali by Chuck Waterfield, a professor at Columbia University who spearheaded the initiative and Yunus, who launched the micro-credit revolution in Bangladesh 30 years ago with his Grameen Bank. (2008-08-27) Link >>

• Unitus

  Balancing Growth and Mission at the Microcredit Campaign Summit

  An important area of interest for Unitus is increased financial transparency for MFIs and the clients they serve. During the opening plenary, Dr. Yunus and Chuck Waterfield of Microfin announced the launch of MFTransparency, an initiative that aims to bring truth-in-lending standards to microfinance by publishing standardized annual interest rates on its website. Unitus and nearly 45 other microfinance-related organizations endorsed the initiative as a critical next step in ensuring ethical lending practices. (2008-08-14) Link >>

• Hope International

  HOPE International endorses Microfinance Transparency

  Lancaster, PA (August 4, 2008) HOPE International has announced its endorsement of MFTransparency.org, a new nonprofit organization created to encourage transparency, integrity, and poverty alleviation within the microfinance sector. HOPE was the first microfinance network to register its support for this new initiative that will prevent abuse of the microfinance sector and exploitation of the poor. (2008-08-04) Link >>

• Lancaster Newspapers

  Local man unveils microfinance dream

  Muhammad Yunus of Pakistan pioneered a microfinance system that has provided small loans to more than 100 million people living in poverty. Chuck Waterfield of Lancaster is an internationally known microfinance expert who is determined to foster Yunus' dream in growing nonprofit, humanitarian banking. (2008-08-01) Link >>

• MicroCapital

  Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus Speaks Out Against For-Profit Microfinance from Asia-Pacific Microcred

  (2008-08-01) Link >>

• Yahoo Singapore

  Setting Standards for Microfinance

  (2008-07-29) Link >>

• Vancouver Sun

  Micro-financiers track loan costs in developing world

  Annual interest of 25, 50 or maybe 100-plus per cent: What's fair? Where, exactly, should the line be drawn between loan-sharks and worthy micro-credit programs? Between enterprises that exploit poor people who can't get conventional loans and those that help them? There's no short answer. (2008-07-29) Link >>

• Payday Pundit

  Truth in lending for microfinancers?

  Stung by allegations of charging high interest rates, Microfinancers are considering a "truth-in-lending" type standard to apply across the industry. (2008-07-29) Link >>

• Reuters, India

  Microcredit lenders urged to improve transparency

  JAKARTA, July 28 (Reuters) - Lenders to the world's poor should disclose how much they charge their borrowers, a global network of microcredit agencies said on Monday, urging more transparency and greater protection of the poor. The proposal is backed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who set up Bangladesh's Grameen Bank and is regarded as the founder of the microcredit movement. (2008-07-28) Link >>

• TheStreet.com

  Microfinance Experts Criticize Mexican Bank

  During a conference call Monday from the Asia-Pacific Microcredit Summit, several advocates chastised those who charge "loan-shark" interest rates and criticized Compartamos' initial public offering last year. Microlending should be performed by banks and nonprofits that operate within the country, they say, and better oversight is needed to ensure competitive rates and ethical collection practices. (2008-07-28) Link >>

• BusinessWeek

  Setting Standards for Microfinance

  In an effort to head off a potential crisis in the fast-expanding microfinance industry, its leaders are adopting global truth-in-lending standards and creating a system for comparing loan terms offered by competing lenders. To manage the effort, a new self-monitoring organization, MicroFinance Transparency, is being set up as the industry's policeman. The goal is to prevent companies from taking advantage of poor people with high interest rates and misleading credit offers. The initiative was announced on July 28 at a microcredit conference in Bali by Chuck Waterfield, a professor at Columbia University who spearheaded the initiative, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who launched the microcredit revolution in Bangladesh 30 years ago with his Grameen Bank. (2008-07-28) Link >>

• CNBC

  Muhammad Yunus Joins Launch of Project to Help the World’s Poorest Borrowers Avoid High Interest Rat

  Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus joined in announcing the launch of MicroFinance Transparency, a non-governmental organization designed to make public the interest rates charged by microcredit lenders around the world, offering a much-needed form of consumer protection to the worlds poorest borrowers. (2008-07-28) Link >>

• Forbes

  Yunus' Bank Shot

  Muhammad Yunus, lender to the very poor and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, thinks traditional bankers could learn from his business model. Consider: for all their fee income and credit analysis, they're the ones having the financial crisis. (2008-07-28) Link >>

• Smart Money

  Muhammad Yunus Joins Launch of Project to Help the World's Poorest Borrowers Avoid High Interest Rat

  NUSA DUA, Indonesia, July 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus joined in announcing the launch of MicroFinance Transparency, a non-governmental organization designed to make public the interest rates charged by microcredit lenders around the world, offering a much-needed form of consumer protection to the world's poorest borrowers. Professor Yunus joined in introducing the US-based, independent NGO here at the annual gathering of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, a Washington, DC-based network of more than 3,600 of the world's leading institutions providing tiny loans to 133 million poor clients, mostly in developing nations. Also attending the conference were Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Honduran President Manuel Zalaya Rosales, South African First Lady Mrs. Zanele Mbecki, and former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo. (2008-07-28) Link >>

• Lancaster Newspapers

  He's aiding borrowers in developing nations

  In the United States, the cost of borrowing money is stated clearly and consistently, thanks to federal law. The Truth in Lending Act requires lenders to tell customers the annual percentage rate they would pay, so customers can easily shop for the best deal. But in developing countries, it's truly a different world. Customers, especially poor business people taking out tiny loans from microfinance lenders, often have a hard time learning the real rate they're paying. (2008-07-25) Link >>