Microfinance Practice: RE: [MFP] Microfinance's position

Of course, I forgot, as we all seem to have done, notably here in India where the cooperatives were started in 1904. And, of course even more important, save first so borrowing is unnecessary, but that's long forgotten too. Malcolm --------------------------------------------
On Fri, 12/9/14, Anuj Jain ajain@stfx.ca [MicrofinancePractice] <MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Subject: RE: [MFP] Microfinance's position - Greed is good!
To: "MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com" <MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Friday, 12 September, 2014, 19:46

And the answer
is….. 'go cooperative'! J Hi Chuck,
the battle is far
from over.. and I would like to believe that majority of us
still on the same side as yours… as a watchdog, it is
great to have you amongst us.. millions moons ago,
when it was unimaginable for many NGOs to think of becoming
for-profit micro-lending institutions; we encouraged, pushed
and even incentivized them to do so.. for access to credit
was an important agenda… we had all the right intent and
purpose in our hearts… but legislation is a
funny thing.. once we open the door for profit to be made
for selling pub goods or services without moderation,
market will attract all kinds of players.. that is how it
is.. period.. perhaps a lesson is learned that the
government of the land must watch and protect the interest
of its hapless and gullible citizens.. international players
and donors, when they intervene too much without realizing
the limited capacities of the regulators, the fallouts can
indeed be drastic.. India went the other way and clamped
down on interest rates… industry predicted doom, but seems
to be adjusting to the new realities with time..
self-regulation without accountability did not work in India
either, as we saw prior to 2010.. For unregulated
environments, where do we place the responsibility (or
blame)? Are multilateral and bilateral institutions, and
international investors have a share?.. many of us, in our
sincere effort to create pragmatic solutions, advocated for
deregulated interested rates.. we believed in the market God
– let the 'market' decide.. and that may very well
work, eventually.. but in the meantime, the definition of
microfinance is no longer in the custody of civil society,
even though that's is where it had germinated…
wish, we had copyrighted it when we had the chance
J… anuj
From:
MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 2:15
PM
To:
microfinancepractice@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [MFP] Microfinance's
position - Greed is good! I'm reaching the decision
that I'm wrong on something I believe passionately about.

I believe
the microfinance industry needs to stake out a clear
position that we do not make excessive profits off of the
poor, that we do not charge usurious rates to the poor.
Others do that, and they have that choice. But to me,
responsible practice means we restrain ourselves and make no
more than moderate profits. I've been saying that over
and over for 7 years. But the industry disagrees. We
still do not have a good definition of "responsible
price" and we do not have any industry position on
responsible profit vs. profiteering. Last month, Compartamos
became the 22nd MFI in the world to be certified as meeting
the SMART principles, despite prices of 105% and profits of
US$1M a day. I made my case last week, at
the Micro Credit Summit in Mexico. My views are summarized
in this article by NextBillion: http://www.nextbillion.net/blogpost.aspx?blogid=4057 I have recorded my position
in this 15-minute video here: http://www.mftransparency.org/making-markets-safe-vulnerable-good-intentions-concret-actions/ I know there are many people
who share my views. But we are outvoted. (Oh there are
no votes taken on these positions.) Self-regulation has a serious
risk of really being self-interested regulation. Until
open debate and objective decision-making takes place, I see
no change possible. But what open forum is there for
debate and decision-making on these topics? I certainly
haven't seen one. So maybe I'm wrong on all
of this. But without discussion and debate, I can't be
convinced that I'm wrong. Chuck
Waterfield

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170 --
#yiv8962119170ygrp-mkp {
border:1px solid #d8d8d8;font-family:Arial;margin:10px
0;padding:0 10px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mkp hr {
border:1px solid #d8d8d8;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mkp #yiv8962119170hd {
color:#628c2a;font-size:85%;font-weight:700;line-height:122%;margin:10px
0;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mkp #yiv8962119170ads {
margin-bottom:10px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mkp .yiv8962119170ad {
padding:0 0;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mkp .yiv8962119170ad p {
margin:0;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mkp .yiv8962119170ad a {
color:#0000ff;text-decoration:none;}
#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-sponsor
#yiv8962119170ygrp-lc {
font-family:Arial;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-sponsor
#yiv8962119170ygrp-lc #yiv8962119170hd {
margin:10px
0px;font-weight:700;font-size:78%;line-height:122%;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-sponsor
#yiv8962119170ygrp-lc .yiv8962119170ad {
margin-bottom:10px;padding:0 0;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170actions {
font-family:Verdana;font-size:11px;padding:10px 0;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170activity {
background-color:#e0ecee;float:left;font-family:Verdana;font-size:10px;padding:10px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170activity span {
font-weight:700;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170activity span:first-child {
text-transform:uppercase;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170activity span a {
color:#5085b6;text-decoration:none;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170activity span span {
color:#ff7900;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170activity span
.yiv8962119170underline {
text-decoration:underline;}

#yiv8962119170 .yiv8962119170attach {
clear:both;display:table;font-family:Arial;font-size:12px;padding:10px
0;width:400px;}

#yiv8962119170 .yiv8962119170attach div a {
text-decoration:none;}

#yiv8962119170 .yiv8962119170attach img {
border:none;padding-right:5px;}

#yiv8962119170 .yiv8962119170attach label {
display:block;margin-bottom:5px;}

#yiv8962119170 .yiv8962119170attach label a {
text-decoration:none;}

#yiv8962119170 blockquote {
margin:0 0 0 4px;}

#yiv8962119170 .yiv8962119170bold {
font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;font-weight:700;}

#yiv8962119170 .yiv8962119170bold a {
text-decoration:none;}

#yiv8962119170 dd.yiv8962119170last p a {
font-family:Verdana;font-weight:700;}

#yiv8962119170 dd.yiv8962119170last p span {
margin-right:10px;font-family:Verdana;font-weight:700;}

#yiv8962119170 dd.yiv8962119170last p
span.yiv8962119170yshortcuts {
margin-right:0;}

#yiv8962119170 div.yiv8962119170attach-table div div a {
text-decoration:none;}

#yiv8962119170 div.yiv8962119170attach-table {
width:400px;}

#yiv8962119170 div.yiv8962119170file-title a, #yiv8962119170
div.yiv8962119170file-title a:active, #yiv8962119170
div.yiv8962119170file-title a:hover, #yiv8962119170
div.yiv8962119170file-title a:visited {
text-decoration:none;}

#yiv8962119170 div.yiv8962119170photo-title a,
#yiv8962119170 div.yiv8962119170photo-title a:active,
#yiv8962119170 div.yiv8962119170photo-title a:hover,
#yiv8962119170 div.yiv8962119170photo-title a:visited {
text-decoration:none;}

#yiv8962119170 div#yiv8962119170ygrp-mlmsg
#yiv8962119170ygrp-msg p a span.yiv8962119170yshortcuts {
font-family:Verdana;font-size:10px;font-weight:normal;}

#yiv8962119170 .yiv8962119170green {
color:#628c2a;}

#yiv8962119170 .yiv8962119170MsoNormal {
margin:0 0 0 0;}

#yiv8962119170 o {
font-size:0;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170photos div {
float:left;width:72px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170photos div div {
border:1px solid
#666666;height:62px;overflow:hidden;width:62px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170photos div label {
color:#666666;font-size:10px;overflow:hidden;text-align:center;white-space:nowrap;width:64px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170reco-category {
font-size:77%;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170reco-desc {
font-size:77%;}

#yiv8962119170 .yiv8962119170replbq {
margin:4px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-actbar div a:first-child {
margin-right:2px;padding-right:5px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mlmsg {
font-size:13px;font-family:Arial, helvetica, clean,
sans-serif;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mlmsg table {
font-size:inherit;font:100%;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mlmsg select,
#yiv8962119170 input, #yiv8962119170 textarea {
font:99% Arial, Helvetica, clean, sans-serif;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mlmsg pre, #yiv8962119170
code {
font:115% monospace;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mlmsg * {
line-height:1.22em;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-mlmsg #yiv8962119170logo {
padding-bottom:10px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-msg p a {
font-family:Verdana;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-msg
p#yiv8962119170attach-count span {
color:#1E66AE;font-weight:700;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-reco
#yiv8962119170reco-head {
color:#ff7900;font-weight:700;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-reco {
margin-bottom:20px;padding:0px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-sponsor #yiv8962119170ov
li a {
font-size:130%;text-decoration:none;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-sponsor #yiv8962119170ov
li {
font-size:77%;list-style-type:square;padding:6px 0;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-sponsor #yiv8962119170ov
ul {
margin:0;padding:0 0 0 8px;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-text {
font-family:Georgia;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-text p {
margin:0 0 1em 0;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-text tt {
font-size:120%;}

#yiv8962119170 #yiv8962119170ygrp-vital ul li:last-child {
border-right:none !important;
}
#yiv8962119170