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Microfinance Institutions
After repeated strictures from the Reserve Bank on the industry's practices, the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) on Monday announced a slew of changes to make lending to the bottom of the pyramid more "responsible". From January 1, the self-regulatory organisation's members will ensure that a single MFI client's borrowings are limited to three MFIs as against four at present and the total indebtedness of a borrower including MFI and unsecured retail loans is capped at Rs 2 lakh, a statement said. The body's chief executive and director Alok Misra hoped that the sector will become "more resilient" with the new measures. Over the last few months, the RBI has gone public with its concerns on a slew of practices adopted by the MFIs, including usurious high interest rates, multiple lendings to single borrowers and even practices like not crediting loan repayments to the rightful accounts despite being paid by borrowers. On October 21, the RBI also asked four entities including
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have played a crucial role in fostering financial inclusion but they should refrain from any reckless lending, Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju said on Wednesday. "We should all be careful on this. Any reckless or poor underwriting norms regarding lending to Self Help Groups (SHGs) or Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) will only harm the sector," he said at an event organised by Sa-Dhan here. Anything that will impact their capacity to repay back will actually harm MFIs, he said. "So, we should be very careful in what we lend, when we lend and how we lend because their financial literacy is limitedtheir exposure to the outside world is limited. We should not capitalize on that. We should actually try to empower them, provide the needed finance and also ensure hand holding so that they flourish," he said. Nagaraju said under the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme, there are more than 77 lakh groups with Rs 2.6 lakh crore outstanding loans benefitting about