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Liberate the Data! Blaine Stephens of MIX discusses how upgraded data access leads to richer analysis and storytelling. The Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) team has spent much of last year redesigning their website and rebuilding the underlying database to better represent the rapidly expanding network of MFIs and their broader array of products, services and metrics. Users now have access to five times more microfinance data and multiple new features for improved analysis and customized reporting. The Microfinance Gateway interviewed Blaine Stephens, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Analysis responsible for MIX’s global operations, to discuss what this redesign means for users of MIX Market.
The redesign of the website allows for data to be collected and analyzed in new ways and for portfolio data to be more extensively broken down. What new data sets are available to users?
For years, participating MFIs have generously provided us a wealth of data on their products and clients, portfolio and operations, and detailed financial statements and notes. Out of the hundreds of data points that MIX collected, standardized and stored, only around 25 were presented to users through the original MIX Market. The new site, in addition to changes to our underlying data collection systems, multiplied that by a factor of 10. More data, in this case, means more information to support decisions made by the myriad actors who use MIX Market. The new data sets range from full financial statements and local currency results, to detailed breakouts on credit and deposit products and soon, information on MFI funding liabilities. What does more data mean for the typical user?
When a review of an MFI picks up an important trend, you may need to dig further to figure out what’s going on. Posting full financial statements online gives users the tools necessary to perform this type of analysis. For example: you notice that an MFI’s funding costs have dropped sharply in the last few years. Have they had changes in foreign exchange exposure? What has changed in the structure of their costs? The full financial statement presentations that are now available to the user will offer some clues. And with the audit reports posted directly in the MFI profiles, the user can trace the financial statements posted on MIX Market back to a trusted source. This builds confidence in the posted results and the transparent process in which they were derived. The new data is also useful for MFIs surveying the competitive landscape. As markets mature, competition increases and product offerings evolve and MFIs and networks want to know how other microfinance providers are adapting their product portfolios. MIX Market MFI profiles reveal these important trends through detailed portfolio information broken down by gender, geography, product type and many other segments. How has the new website improved functionality for users?
New analytical tools also improve access to the data by allowing users to create insights according to their needs. While the MIX’s annual MFI performance benchmarks provide a critical tool for creating common reference points, they can’t meet every user’s specific analytical needs. That’s why we introduced the MIX Market’s online benchmarking tools, which allow users to choose their own criteria for the benchmarks. Out of all these updates on the MIX Market, what data sets are you personally excited about? Within a year, we will have released three major new data sets to the industry, each of which will deepen our understanding of microfinance institutions and their markets and provide answers to questions that the industry asks itself. In this light, I am excited by the release of our MFI funding structures data. For the past several years, MIX has collected data on the borrowings and other funding vehicles used by leading MFIs and we will now be able make this data available to all users.In the end, we want the data set to provide users practical insights for their daily work and to answer questions that an MFI or funder may have about the evolving funding landscape, such as:
We hope that access to this data will improve transparency within the MFI investment community and will help to facilitate capital flows between MFIs and investors.
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Posted: 30 Jun 2010 Related Documents: | ||||||||||||||||
One simple feature we have propagated throughout the site is data visualization. Simple graphs allow the user to spot trends that tables of numbers might otherwise obscure. Each country page allows the user to quickly place that country within regional and global contexts on a range of key performance indicators. It helps answer questions such as “Is the 
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