Case Study

Microfinance in Latin America: The Leadership of WSBI Members

The report highlights the involvement of World Savings Bank Institute's members in microfinance.
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This report describes the activities of the Latin American members of the World Savings Banks Institute (WSBI).

The report demonstrates that WSBI Latin American members:

  • Are large and long-established providers of microfinance services. As proximity financial institutions with large networks and a strong social commitment, they are leaders in the Latin American microfinance industry. A rough estimate indicates that they provided microcredits to more than 1.45 million clients in 2006. They also mobilized at least $779 million USD deposits from their microfinance clients in that same year.
  • Provide a full range of microfinance products. All of them mobilize savings, which is one of their major advantages compared to other microfinance providers focusing exclusively on credit. They also provide remittance services, and some of them are leaders in the distribution of accessible insurance products.
  • Are experiencing impressive growth both in terms of clients, portfolio and savings collection. On an average, they have experienced 40% portfolio growth rate and 30% client growth rate for each of the past 3 years (2004-2006).

[Based on the author’s abstract]