Over the last thirty years, microfinance has matured from a small group of NGOs providing tiny loans to a broad industry encompassing banks, MFIs, credit unions, and NGOs offering a range of financial services to the poor. This often happens within a weak legal and regulatory framework that can not support the expansion of sustainable microfinance services. Increasingly, banking regulators and supervisors, MFIs, national microfinance networks, and other stakeholders are seeking to understand the optimal mix of regulation and supervision for microfinance.
The Microfinance Regulation and Supervision Resource Center, developed by the IRIS Center and CGAP, addresses that need by disseminating information on world-wide experiences in regulating and supervising microfinance. Here you will find such resources as:
- The Comparative Database on Microfinance Regulation
Get a detailed overview of regulation and supervision in 52 different countries. Access information by country, or compare across different countries or institutional types.
- The Reference Library
Find the best documents and links to valuable insights on financial sector regulation and supervision. This includes links to best practice documents on regulation, cross-country comparisons of microfinance regulation, tools for effective supervision of microfinance, and links to relevant information at the World Bank and elsewhere.
- The Basics of Regulation
Read about the most salient issues regarding regulating and supervising microfinance, with best practice advice and an analysis of how other countries have done it.
- Information by Country
Learn what international and local experts have to say about microfinance regulatory reform and the impact different regulatory environments have on the microfinance industry in specially commissioned “Essays on Regulation and Supervision.” Also, review a collection of country specific links to the relevant laws and regulations affecting microfinance, the financial regulator and the World Bank Investment Climate Survey; and other recommended reading.
This resource center is a joint project of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the IRIS Center.
The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) is a consortium of 29 bilateral, multilateral and private donor institutions working together to build financial systems that serve the poor in developing countries. CGAP functions as a resource center, facilitating the development of standards, developing operational tools, providing technical and advisory services, and delivering training and information on best practices.
IRIS is a policy research and advisory center dedicated to facilitating economic growth and improving governance in developing and transition countries. In partnership with international donors, reformers, and scholars, IRIS conducts research, designs and implements programs, and promotes the sharing and application of innovative ideas and insights. Based in economics, but taking an interdisciplinary approach, IRIS focuses on the role of institutions - the formal and informal rules by which individuals organize economic, political, and social activity. IRIS’s main areas of expertise include economic and institutional analysis, enterprise development, governance and civil society, and legal and regulatory reform.