Client Monitoring Systems for Microfinance Institutions: AIMS Assistance to the Workers Bank of Jamaica

This paper describes the client monitoring system established at the Workers Bank of Jamaica with the assistance of experts from the AIMS Project in 1997 and 1998. The Workers Bank, a financial institution that offers services to poor entrepreneurs in Jamaica, provides a full range of banking services to a socially diverse client base through bank branches located in post offices throughout Jamaica.

The goal of the AIMS Project assistance was to help the Workers Bank develop a computer-based client monitoring system that was integrated into the loan application and review processes. The system, known as the Client Profiling System (CPS), was to provide the Workers Bank and USAID/Jamaica with information about the impacts of program participation on clients' enterprises and households.

The paper describes steps in system design and implementation, methodological considerations in selecting indicators of changes, data collection procedures and standards, and lessons learned through the technical assistance effort. It concludes that the client monitoring system developed for Workers Bank indicates:

• Practical monitoring system can be successfully integrated into a general database system;
• Staff and clients can quickly become comfortable with an automated loan processing system;
• Efficiency of loan officers can be enhanced by improving organization and accuracy and by eliminating the time required for manual calculations.