Second Newly Independent States Policy Forum on Microfinance Law and Regulation

Describing the Second Newly Independent States (NIS) Policy Forum on Microfinance Law and held in Krakow, Poland, June 26-28, 2003. This report lists the main features of the forum:

• It brought together a number of public officials and policymakers from ten NIS countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan - along with donor representatives and microfinance practitioners;
• The participants reported that the forum was informative and well organized, and rated the forum materials, topics, presentations, and speakers' skills as good or excellent.

The forum:

• Began with presentations on key microfinance issues in the legal and regulatory environment;
• Gave an overview of legal and regulatory terminology;
• Asked the participants to examine and discuss microfinance regulation - its scope and its relationship to bank regulation;
• Had presentations on each country's legal and regulatory framework and challenges;
• Studied results of microfinance legal requirements in specific countries and discussed:
  • The impact of the new Basel Accord,
  • Country-specific challenges of integrating microfinance into the formal financial system.

The participants recommended:

• Learning from other policymakers with more experience in regulating microfinance institutions;
• Having access to regulation and supervision case studies and best practices;
• Obtaining information on how practical problems of microfinance institutions were resolved;
• Learning more about specific microfinance topics such as leasing, credit cards, microinsurance, and collateral.