scholarly journals MICROCREDIT AS A TOOL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES FOR LOW-RELEASED POPULATIONS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mykola Miroshnik ◽  
◽  
Iryna Didenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Net Income ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Subsistence Level ◽  
High Interest Rate ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Financial Characteristics

In the current coronavirus crisis, there is an exacerbation of economic and social problems that provoke a deterioration of the situation in a country with poverty. In such circumstances, the poor are particularly vulnerable, whose income for survival and so below the subsistence level. The loss of even a small source of income can lead to negative consequences. In such conditions, the task of the state is to adapt social policy to such changes, taking into account the capabilities of the financial sector. One of the rather new for Ukraine, but already popular tools for the development of financial services and financial inclusion for such a social group is microcredit. This article is devoted to his research, which provides a theoretical analysis of the nature and main features of microcredit, their main representatives (microfinance organizations and their brands) in Ukraine and their financial characteristics. In essence, this is a type of consumer loan that is provided for a relatively short period (up to one month) at a fairly high interest rate (average 2%) per day in the amount of less than one minimum wage. At the same time, there is a growing popularity of remote (online) service, which involves minimal time and does not require many documents from customers. The main providers of such services are microfinance organizations, whose presence are constantly growing in the market and are characterized by diversified activities – sometimes represented by several brands. A study of the top 10 leaders showed fluctuations in daily and annual interest rates, and a study of their net income – the profitability of this type of business over the past two years. In this regard, there is a need to increase attention to their activities by the main regulator – the National Bank of Ukraine. Despite existing measures to increase consumer protection in the process of obtaining microcredit services and prohibiting unethical actions of collectors through debt collection, it is recommended to develop a system for identifying and preventing credit risks to prevent future financial losses and intensify information campaign to increase financial literacy of the poor.

scholarly journals Financial Education Renaissance in Japan and the Role of CCFIS : A Policy Commentary

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (No. 2 Oct 2018) ◽  
pp. 29-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinichi Yoshikuni
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Financial Education ◽  
Financial Fraud ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Negative Interest Rates

Financial education became a global agenda after the global financial crisis, and is one of the important elements of the SDGs. In Japan, although we have established a comprehensive system of financial education, the level of financial literacy is not high enough in comparison to other advanced economies. Rapid aging of the society and the increase in financial fraud demonstrate stronger need for enhancing the financial literacy of general public. The Central Council for Financial Services Information responded by publishing the Financial Literacy Map which describes the necessary knowledge and skills regarding money and finance, targeting at different age groups. We also conducted the Financial Literacy Survey, the result of which was widely reported by mass media. Based on the aforementioned products of our work, the Council is conducting various seminars, and publishing materials aimed at protecting consumers from financial fraud by enhancing their financial literacy and at providing necessary knowledge and skills to cope with the era of the 100-year life. In this connection, we are faced with the issue of how to enhance the financial literacy of teachers in times of rapid financial innovation, as well as in the unprecedented financial environment, such as the zero/negative interest rates. In particular, FinTech could have the effect of causing reverse literacy gap between teachers and students. In order to deal with such challenges, the Council is collaborating with relevant public and/or private institutions, e.g., the Financial Services Agency, local governments, representatives of financial institutions, to revive the spirit of Meiji era, when prominent figures stressed the importance of money in life. We should aim at “financial education renaissance” in Japan.

Microfinance: The Impact of Multiple Borrowings of Microcredit among Clients of Microfinance Institutions in Central Uttar Pradesh Region of India

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zain Mehdi
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Private Equity ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Loan Contracts ◽  
For Profit ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Impact

Microfinance is the supply of loans, savings, and other basic financial services to the poor. Beginning of the microfinance movement is most closely associated with the economist Muhammed Yunus, who in the early 1970's was a Professor in Bangladesh. In the midst of a country-wide famine, he began making small loans to poor families in neighboring villages in an effort to break their cycle of poverty. The study has focused on the repayment problems of loans to be taken by the clients of ‘For Profit Making Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)’. Micro financing has boomed in recent years. Though founded as non-profit institutions, Indian Microfinance industry has been turbocharged by private – equity firms, nearly doubling in the year ended March 31, 2008 delivering $ 2.5 billion loans. Many microfinance lenders have recently registered as for – profit finance firms with the Reserve Bank of India, giving them wider access to funds but limiting them to ‘reasonable’ interest rates. Those rates are still high – between 20% and 40% annually, according to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, or CGAP, hosted at the World Bank location. This creates the need for multiple borrowings. In this research, the researcher has used the regression analysis to study the effect of Age, Gender, Number of Dependent and Education level due to multiple loan contracts. Further, the relationship between variables taken in this research has been analyzed such as income of respondents and amount of loans. The findings show that actually, the multiple borrowings of clients of MFI’s are not benefiting them and in reality they are affecting their livelihood.

scholarly journals Rural Finance in Contemporary Times: Interface with Microfinance

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
N S Sisodia ◽  
M B N Rao ◽  
Vijay Mahajan ◽  
V Leeladhar ◽  
M P Vasimalai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Banking System ◽  
The State ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Rural Finance ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Financial Exclusion

In India, when we talk about rural finance, the stereotype offered is that of a banking system that fails to reach out to the poorer clients and, when it does, fails to recover the money so disbursed. The counter-point offered is usually the magic wand of microfinance. This Colloquium was an interface between leading bankers and microfinance practitioners in India to examine where these two worlds meet and how they could learn from each other. The discussions were organized around three themes: a) the legacy of the banking system, b) the limitations of microfinance, and c) an assessment of the potential. On the issue of legacy, the message was clear that the intervention of the state in certain aspects has been undesirable. These areas were clearly identified as granting general pardon for loans, tinkering around with interest subsidies, and interfering with the commercial aspects of banking. The limitations of the microfinance institutions were in terms of their sustainability and their inability to draw commercial capital and grow rapidly. However, these limitations were partly seen as a consequence of regulatory apathy and support from the state both in terms of formulating and articulating a regulatory framework and also in terms of the central bank being reluctant to supervise the efforts. These did not help in enhancing the legitimacy of microfinance institutions. The participants saw a great potential in the rural markets which were beyond agriculture. The emerging sectors were identified as construction, non-farm enterprise, handloom, clusters that involve garment making and quarrying, etc. According to them, there was scope for both the banks and the microfinance institutions to intervene. The following points emerged from the discussion: Rural finance has suffered from interventions from the state in the past. While some interventions have been positive, they have harmed the sector when compromises such as write-offs have been made. Microfinance has emerged as an important mechanism to reach out financial services to the poor. There are interesting lessons from this for the banks to adopt. There are problems for the microfinance institutions in the form of regulatory and supervisory apathy. This leads to financial exclusion of large segments of the poor. There is a huge market for financial services — both loans and savings. Innovations across the world indicate important breakthroughs in delivery of financial services. These can be implemented provided the regulatory impediments are removed. The issue of risk management has to be systematically addressed. The role of the state, wherever positive, has been effective and, therefore, this should be sharply defined to see how the state could contribute to this sector. The issue of interest rates continues to be vexatious and needs to be addressed urgently.

Microfinance and Social Performance

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Gravesteijn ◽  
James Copestake
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Bank Loan ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Wide Range

Microfinance refers to an array of financial services—including loans, savings, and insurance—available to poor entrepreneurs and small business owners who have no collateral and, otherwise, would not qualify for a standard bank loan. Those who promote microfinance generally believe that such access will help poor people out of poverty. For many, microfinance is a way to promote economic development, employment, and growth through the support of micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses; for others, it is a way for the poor to manage their finances more effectively and take advantage of economic opportunities while managing the risks. One of the newer fields that is getting more attention within microfinance is the measure of microfinance institutions’ (MFIs) social performance, which broadly is an indication of how well an MFI meets the social goals outlined in its mission and vision. Social performance is reflected in a wide range of indicators, including an MFI’s policies towards employees, like providing health care or maternity leave; to what degree an MFI targets the poorest of the poor for financial services; an MFI’s policies on environmental conservation; how low an MFI keeps its interest rates; how transparent an MFI is about these interest rates and other loan terms; and how an MFI’s services translate into improved lives for their clients.

scholarly journals Money, Knowledge and Power

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Barnard ◽  
J. Billing ◽  
D. Brotherston ◽  
T. Jeffery ◽  
P. Mansell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
Customer Outcomes

Abstract Financial literacy is a core life skill for participating in modern society. But how many of us have been educated about money; the importance of budgeting and saving for a rainy day; how bank accounts and debt work and when it makes sense to save for a pension? Our brief research to date indicates a shockingly low level of financial literacy in the general population. And, it does not look like this will get better soon; regarding improving financial literacy, the Financial Services Authority stated in 2003 that “Never has the need been so great or so urgent”. And yet many children will go through school without an hour spent studying financial literacy. Furthermore, efforts to improve financial literacy at older ages are either non-existent or piecemeal at best. The consequences of poor financial literacy are especially damaging for vulnerable people. Vulnerable groups of people are most at risk of making poor financial decisions throughout their lives, which has negative consequences for saving, home ownership, debt levels, retirement and financial inclusion. In this paper, we consider various mechanisms to protect such financial customers, whilst recognising that improving financial literacy is not a silver bullet to improve customer outcomes from financial products. Financial literacy cannot be brought to a point where the public can understand many financial products without support and advice. But surely, awareness of basic financial literacy principles can be raised, including the most important: when to seek support and advice before undertaking important financial decisions. The paper suggests some key principles for financial literacy and will also consider methods and tools to allow the public to access much-needed support and advice.

Achieving Financial Inclusion for Persons With Disabilities: Exploring Preparedness and Accessibility of Financial Services for Persons With Disabilities in Malawi

2021 ◽  
pp. 104420732110275
Author(s):  
Alex Nester Jiya ◽  
Maxwell Peprah Opoku ◽  
William Nketsia ◽  
Joslin Alexei Dogbe ◽  
Josephine Nkrumah Adusei
Keyword(s):  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Commercial Banks ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Persons With Disabilities

Deplorable living conditions among persons with disabilities and the need to improve their living conditions cannot be overemphasized. This has triggered international discussion on the need for deliberate social policies to bridge the poverty gap between persons with and without disabilities. In Malawi, expansion of financial services has been identified as an essential tool to accelerate economic and inclusive development. However, empirical studies are yet to explore the preparedness of financial institutions to extend their services to persons with disabilities. In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers from commercial banks in Malawi to understand their perspectives on extending financial services to persons with disabilities. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and a descriptive thematic analysis was performed. Although participants reiterated the need to provide persons with disabilities with financial services to improve their well-being, few initiatives have been undertaken to improve their participation. Particularly, participants stated that barriers, such as a lack of financial literacy and adaptive technologies, communication barriers, and high rates of unemployment, explained the reluctance of commercial banks to extend financial services to persons with disabilities. The limitations, recommendations for future research, and implications of the study for policymaking have been highlighted.

scholarly journals The value of in-person banking: evidence from U.S. small businesses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Song Zhang ◽  
Liang Han ◽  
Konstantinos Kallias ◽  
Antonios Kallias
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Soft Information ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Treatment Effect Models ◽  
The U.S

AbstractWe produce the first systematic study of the determinants and implications of in-person banking. Using survey data from the U.S., we show that firms which are informationally opaque or operate in rural areas are liable to contact their primary bank in-person. This tendency extends to older, less educated, and female business owners. We find that a relationship based on face-to-face communication, on average, lasts 17.88 months longer, spans a wider range of financial services, and is more likely to be exclusive. The associated loans mature 3.37 months later and bear interest rates which are 11 basis points lower. For good quality firms, in-person communication also relates to less discouraged borrowing. These results are robust to multiple approaches for endogeneity, including recursive bivariate probits, treatment effect models, and instrumental variables regressions. Overall, our findings offer empirical grounding to soft information theory and a note of caution to banks against suppressing channels of interpersonal communication.

Risks of the Digitalization of Life of the Population and Ways of Decreasing Them

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4-1) ◽  
pp. 180-203
Author(s):  
Elena Stukalenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

Digital technologies, ubiquitous in our daily life, have radically changed the way we work, communicate, and consume in a short period of time. They affect all components of quality of life: well-being, work, health, education, social connections, environmental quality, the ability to participate and govern civil society, and so on. Digital transformation creates both opportunities and serious risks to the well-being of people. Researchers and statistical agencies around the world are facing a major challenge to develop new tools to analyze the impact of digital transformation on the well-being of the population. The risks are very diverse in nature and it is very difficult to identify the key factor. All researchers conclude that secure digital technologies significantly improve the lives of those who have the skills to use them and pose a serious risk of inequality for society, as they introduce a digital divide between those who have the skills to use them and those who do not. In the article, the author examines the risks created by digital technologies for some components of the quality of life (digital component of the quality of life), which are six main components: the digital quality of the population, providing the population with digital benefits, the labor market in the digital economy, the impact of digitalization on the social sphere, state electronic services for the population and the security of information activities. The study was carried out on the basis of the available statistical base and the results of research by scientists from different countries of the world. The risks of the digital economy cannot be ignored when pursuing state social policy. Attention is paid to government regulation aimed at reducing the negative consequences of digitalization through the prism of national, federal projects and other events.

Determinants of Financial Inclusion in Namobuddha Municipality, Nepal

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-74
Author(s):  
Jeetendra Dangol ◽  
Anil Humagain
Keyword(s):  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Control Variable ◽  
Financial Innovation ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Gender Education ◽  
And Control ◽  
Moderating Role

Financial inclusion is a priority agenda in countries like Nepal. The study seeks to determine the access to financial services, financial innovation and quality of financial services to the financial inclusion.The study is based on questionnaire surveydata with363 household respondents using a convenient sampling technique, and carried out in Namobuddha Municipality of Nepal. The moderating effect of financial literacy and control variable of demographic items have been analysed using generalised regression model. The results show that financial innovation and quality of financial services are the significant determinants of financial inclusion; financial literacy is found significant and it plays a moderating role between the variables under study. The findings revealed that the tendency of higher level of financial inclusion was influenced by gender, education level and monthly income.

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