Track Record of Financial Institutions in Assisting the Poor in Asia

Major investments have been made in developing microfinance in Asia with reducing poverty as one of the frequently stated objectives. A variety of institutional forms of microfinance are being introduced in the region including by the ADBand financial institutions pursue different objectives, so it is difficult to assess how well microfinance is actually contributing to poverty alleviation. There is little systematic data available on which to make global or regional generalizations. The objective of this paper is to provide some insights into how well the industry is performing by summarizing and evaluating key studies and data for the region. A critical triangle of microfinances, including outreach, sustainability and impact, is used as the conceptual framework to organize the presentation. Criteria…