The World's Top Microfinance Institutions : Forbes

Top 50 Microfinance Institutions


Microfinance has become a buzzword of the decade, raising the provocative notion that even philanthropy aimed at alleviating poverty can be profitable to institutional and individual investors. Instead of merely writing a check (then writing it off), why not make a tidy profit from a short-term, high-interest loan, most for under $200, so that a Mexican seamstress may buy a new sewing machine? Or so a Moroccan farmer can buy chickens so he may sell more eggs? Billionaires, global leaders and Nobel Prize recipients are hailing these direct loans to uncollateralized would-be entrepreneurs as a way to lift them out of poverty while creating self-sustaining businesses. That promise has had a magnetic effect on private capital sources. Microfinance funding from private investors more than tripled to $2 billion in 2006.

The field has attracted sterling banks and fund managers, including Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ), blue-chip venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital, tycoons like eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) founder Pierre Omidyar and Oscar-winning screen stars such as Robert Duvall--they've all joined the chase for returns in microfinance. Today, there are upward of 12,000 microfinance institutions issuing loans.

http://www.forbes.com/business/2007/12/20/top-microfinance-philanthropy-biz-cz_ms_1220intro.html



Top 50 Microfinance Institutions

Overall Rank

Superstars Of Microfinance


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