scholarly journals Does bank regulation and supervision impedes the efficiency of microfinance institutions to eradicate poverty? Evidence from ASEAN-5 countries

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurazilah Zainal ◽  
Annuar Md Nassir ◽  
Fakarudin Kamarudin ◽  
Siong Hook Law

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how banking regulation and supervision affect the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs). It proposes performance of the MFIs from the aspect of social and financial efficiency because the MFIs nowadays not only view to sustain the social role of poverty eradication but in the same time they must strive the financial sustainability to maintain the operation in long run. This study also includes the macroeconomic condition and firm level variables to control for social and financial efficiency of the MFIs. Design/methodology/approach The data consists 168 MFIs from five countries in Southeast Asia from year 2011 to 2017. First stage of analysis is to identify level of social and financial efficiency by using data envelopment analysis approach. Second stage is to examine impact of bank regulation and supervision to the social and financial efficiency by applying panel regression analysis and generalized method of moments for robust estimation methods. Findings The finding shows the MFIs own lower social efficiency and higher score in financial efficiency. This indicates in pursuing financial sustainability, the MFIs in Southeast Asia countries have lost sight of their original mission of poverty reduction. Furthermore, the result also presents a significant impact of bank regulation and supervision to the social and financial efficiency of the MFIs. However, the results appear in different direction when more negative effect is associated with social efficiency. This specifies that bank regulation and supervision are not appropriate to accommodate the social needs, thus hampering the effort of poverty reduction by the MFIs. Research limitations/implications The present study only concentrates on the impact bank regulation and supervision to the performance of the MFIs. As the operation of the MFIs currently has been largely exposed in banking operation, it is suggested that future studies to look for other special issues such as country governance that might influence specifically in social and financial aspect of the MFIs. Practical implications The empirical findings from this study could be useful and may have significant implications for the regulators. The regulators or policymakers could establish the new regulation framework that fulfil the dual needs (social and financial) of the MFIs. Furthermore, the empirical findings also could serve as guidance to regulators and decision-makers in designing new policies for a sustainable and competitive sector of the MFIs. Although the MFIs recently brings a similar role as commercial banks, they need to retain the social aspects as that is the original mission of the MFIs Originality/value The present study proves that the bank regulation and supervision have brought a significant influence to the performance of the MFIs in ASEAN 5 countries.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nitin Navin ◽  
Pankaj Sinha

Purpose With the ongoing transformation of the microfinance sector, questions have been raised on the ability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) to perform financially well without compromising with their social objectives. The current study attempts to analyse the social and financial performance of Indian MFIs with an objective to find the kind of relationship between these two objectives. Design/methodology/approach The dynamic framework of simultaneous equations model is used to find the nature of the relationship which exists between social and financial performance of Indian MFIs. Findings The study finds that depth of outreach enables MFIs to achieve financial sustainability. On the other hand, financially strong MFI lend more as reflected by an increase in their average loan size. Research limitations/implications Many MFIs still receive subsidies to support their operations. Ideally, adjustments should be made to remove the effect of such subsidies on their cost. However, due to non-availability of data, the study fails to make any adjustment for the subsidies. Practical implications The presence of a complementary relationship between social and financial performance in the Indian microfinance sector is quite encouraging for the policymakers during the current time when the sector is becoming less dependent on subsidies. However, the recent upsurge in the average loan size requires attention. Social implications The findings suggest that MFIs can achieve financial sustainability while targeting poor clients. This indicates that MFIs can perform socially good along with their financial performance. Originality/value Such study is vital when the Indian microfinance sector is moving away from subsidies to become self-reliant and commercialised. Few studies have focused on this aspect of Indian microfinance sector.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Velid Efendic ◽  
Nejra Hadziahmetovic

Abstract This paper investigates the financial and social efficiency of microfinance institutions (“MFIs”) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the effects of the latest crisis on these “two-dimensional” efficiencies. Specifically, we analyze the efficiency of MFIs in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as a good case of a European, post-war country in transition with a developed micro-financial sector. The efficiency analysis relies on secondary data collected and investigated through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The study covers data for the period commencing in 2008 and ending in 2015. In our empirical investigation, we find a suboptimal level of both financial and social efficiency among MFIs in BiH. However, financial efficiency is significantly higher than social efficiency, while small-sized MFIs over perform larger ones in both the financial and social dimensions. As a result of the crisis, MFIs recorded a declining trend in efficiency up to 2010, after which they began to show signs of slow recovery. However, our results suggest that MFIs prioritized financial over social goals in recovery period following the crisis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-43
Author(s):  
Swati Chauhan

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) provides savings, credit, insurance and remittance facilities to more impoverished people without any collateral. MFIs have twin goals: social outreach and financial sustainability. Outreach refers to how many people are served by MFIs while the capacity of MFIs to serve longer is financial sustainability. The social and financial performance of MFIs is the most debatable issue in the Indian microfinance industry. Social efficiency indicates MFIs’ willingness to support a higher number of poorer consumers while financial efficiency indicates how long financial services can be offered to the poor by institutions. The success of these organizations is very critical for the continuity of funding support for donor agencies and the government. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques this paper calculates the efficiency of Indian NGO–MFIs. The research also uses Tobit regression to estimate the factors of the efficiency of MFIs. The data is taken from the Microfinance Information Exchange for the period 2009 to 2015. Results indicate that NGO–MFIs are financially more efficient than social ones. Regression findings show that the critical variable for the financial and social efficiency of NGO–MFIs is operational self-sufficiency (OSS). Very few empirical studies are available in the Indian context that discuss the efficiency of Indian NGO–MFIs. The present paper provides standards for performance measures of NGO–MFIs operating in India to assist in improving the performance and growth of microfinance firms.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kangbok Lee ◽  
Wenling Lu

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of bank regulation and supervision on bank development, efficiency and fragility over the period of 1999-2011. Design/methodology/approach – The authors’ approach is based on a multivariate difference-in-difference model which controls for potential endogeneity of the explanatory variables and unobservable country-specific effect. The paper investigates the changes of bank outcomes and a country’s regulation and supervisory practices, in terms of capital regulation, supervisory power, private monitoring, entry into banking requirements, overall restrictions on bank activities and government ownership of banks in a sample of 53 countries with a total of 482 observations. Findings – Empirical results indicate that greater capital regulatory requirements reduce bank fragility, as measured by lower levels of non-performing loans but reduce bank efficiency, as measured by higher levels of net interest margin; supervisory practices that strengthen private sector monitoring of banks improve bank development, as measured by bank private credit as a share of gross domestic product; lower levels of non-performing loans are associated with greater enter-into-banking requirements and less restrictiveness on bank activities; and greater government ownership of banks is associated with both higher levels of net interest margin and higher levels of non-performing loans. Overall, the findings support Basel II’s first and third pillars: capital requirements and private monitoring. Originality/value – This cross-country analysis provides evidence on which specific regulatory and supervisory practices work best in light of what was learned from the recent financial crisis.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwa Fersi ◽  
Mouna Bougelbène

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to investigate the impact of credit risk-taking on financial and social efficiency and examine the relationship between credit risk, capital structure and efficiency in the context of Islamic microfinance institutions (MFIs) compared to their conventional counterparts.Design/methodology/approachThe stochastic frontier approach was used to estimate the financial and social efficiency scores, in a first step. In a second step, the impact of risk-taking on efficiency was evaluated. The authors also took into account the moderating role of capital structure in this effect using the fixed and random effects generalized least squares (GLS) with a first-order autoregressive disturbance. The used dataset covers 326 conventional MFIs and 57 Islamic MFIs in six different regions of the world over the period of 2005–2015.FindingsThe overall average efficiency scores are less than 50%, where CMFIs could have produced their outputs using 48% of their actual inputs. IMFIs record the lowest financial (cost) efficiency that is equal to 28% on average. The estimation results also reveal a negative impact of nonperforming loan on financial and social efficiency. Finally, the moderating effect of leverage funding on the relationship between credit risk-taking and financial efficiency was confirmed in CMFIs. However, leverage seems to moderate the effect of risk-taking behavior on social efficiency for IMFIs.Originality/valueThis paper makes an initial attempt to evaluate the effect of risk-taking decision and its implication on efficiency and MFIs' sustainability. Besides, it takes into consideration the role played by the mode of governance through the ownership structure. In addition, this research study sheds light on the importance of the financial support for the development and sustainability of these institutions, which in return, contributes to a sustainable economic development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (46) ◽  
pp. 247-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asif Saeed ◽  
Attiya Y. Javed ◽  
Umara Noreen

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the relationship between microfinance institutions (MFIs) governance and performance. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 215 MFIs from six South Asian countries over the period from 2005 to 2009, the authors examine the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) duality, board size, female CEO, urban market coverage, bank regulation and lending type on financial and social performance of MFIs. Findings The findings provide evidence that, on the one hand, empowered CEO, large board size and individual lending improve the MFI financial performance and, on another hand, bank regulation and serving in the urban market have a significant association with MFIs’ social performance. In an additional analysis, the authors also test this relationship before, during and after the financial crisis of 2007. During crisis period, MFIs’ individual lending reduces the operational cost and bank regulation increases the average loan size in South Asian MFIs. Originality/value Those studies that are presented in the literature review conclude their result on the bases of global, European, East African and specific to some countries sample. There is no study presented in the whole literature on South Asian sample, in which all countries really face the problem of poverty.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Nderitu Githaiga

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate whether revenue diversification affects the financial sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs).Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a worldwide panel data set of 443 MFIs in 108 countries for the period 2013–2018 and two-step system Generalized Method of Moments estimation model.FindingsThe study finds that revenue diversification has a significant and positive effect on the financial sustainability of MFIs.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study actually offer important managerial and policy lessons on MFIs’ financial sustainability. Microfinance managers and policymakers should consider revenue diversification as a strategy through which MFIs can attain financial sustainability instead of overreliance on donations and government subsidiesOriginality/valueUnlike previous studies that examined revenue diversification in the context of banking firms, this study contributes to literature by examining the impact of revenue diversification of the financial sustainability of MFIs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 1362-1376
Author(s):  
Purwanto Purwanto ◽  
Ina Primiana ◽  
Dian Masyita ◽  
Erie Febrian

The involvement of Islamic Microfinance Institutions (IMFI) in building the national economy is paramount to help the poor. However, provision of access and services to lower-level households can potentially conflict with the sustainability of the institutions. This study analyses the social outreach factors that determine financial and social efficiencies. To reach the set goal and solve this issue, we used mixed methodology combining quantitative (statistical instruments, such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and multivariate analysis) and qualitative approaches (interviews to clarify or deepen the existing information). The assessment of the dependent variables is influenced by proxies of depth, breadth, length, scope, and cost. The results showed that the average loan instalments and the number of offices and branches significantly influence financial and social efficiency. The age of the institution only has an effect on financial efficiency. Simultaneously, profit orientation, the amount and type of financing and the amount and type of savings only have a high impact on social efficiency, whereas the impact of fund collection and cost per borrower is insignificant. There is a strong positive correlation between the two dependent variables. The influence of independent variables on financial and social efficiency is significant with the coefficient of determination 23.1274 % and 53.2941 %, respectively.


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