Author: John D. Conroy, ANU and FDC
The removal of Muhammad Yunus as Managing Director of Grameen Bank now seems irrevocable.
The Bangladesh Finance Ministry is reported to have prepared a ‘14 point plan’ that will ‘transform the Nobel winning micro-lender into another state-owned bank’, with the government likely looking to increase its equity stake in Grameen (currently less than 4 per cent of paid capital) to restructure the board and ‘establish control over its lucrative sister firms’. Read more…
Author: John D. Conroy, ANU
Towards the end of 2010, the PNG government approved a National Informal Economy Policy. The rationale for this policy was presented in a recent Pacific Economic Bulletin.
It was adopted amid concern that the benefits of increasing economic activity in the resource-extraction sector — the ‘commanding heights’ of the PNG economy — will not flow efficiently or equitably to the grassroots population. Read more…
Author: John Conroy, ANU
APEC Finance Ministers, meeting in Kyoto this past November, launched an initiative on ‘financial inclusion’ to be conducted by member economies. Their Ministerial Statement set out the rationale:
Efficient and affordable financial services are critical to the success of economic activity at all levels including the micro, small and medium enterprise and the households sectors. To this end, we have launched an APEC Financial Inclusion Initiative to identify concrete actions that financial policy makers can take to expand the reach of financial services to the underserved. Read more…
Author: John D Conroy, FDC
Enthusiasm for microfinance has surged since Professor Yunus and his Grameen Bank shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. APEC Finance Ministers will be asked to adopt an initiative on ‘financial inclusion’ when they meet at Kyoto in November. Unfortunately, this coincides with a wave of financialisation in the ‘micro-lending’ sector of the industry, a phenomenon Yunus deplores. As events unfold, micro-lending may come to provide an uncomfortable analogy, in terms of credit ‘bubbles’ and systemic damage, with ‘sub-prime’ home mortgage lending. APEC should avoid endorsing negative aspects of financialised microcredit.
Thinking about financial services for the poor has evolved since the 1980s, when Yunus pioneered micro-lending. Read more…
