Launched in July 2008 by Chuck Waterfield, long time practitioner and microfinance trainer, MFTransparency is a global initiative for fair and transparent pricing in the microfinance industry. Its vision is to be the venue for the microfinance industry to publicly demonstrate its commitment to pricing transparency, integrity and poverty alleviation. Specifically, it is creating a forum for the industry to report what actual interest rates are and why interest rates in competitive microfinance markets need to be higher than in commercial finance. It goes a step beyond existing data sources such as the MBB and the MIX by providing comprehensive portfolio yield information.

MFTransparency addresses pricing transparency through two joint activities. First, MFTransparency will collect prices on all micro-loan products around the world and report those prices by a common, objective measurement system. Second, MFTransparency will develop and disseminate educational materials to enable microfinance stakeholders at a broad range of levels – analysts, donors and investors, MFI managers, microentrepreneurs themselves – to better understand the concept and function of interest rates and product pricing.