National Financial Inclusion Conference 2014: Partnership and Future Growth Emerging Roles of Microfinance Sector

This report describes the proceedings of the 9th National Financial Inclusion conference organized by Sa-Dhan in 2014. The conference addressed issues and challenges of the microfinance sector and panoramic concerns pertaining to the political economy of the country. It also provided a forum to understand the concerns of the lending institutions and bring resolutions towards the liquidity crunch faced by them. The report covers the following sections in detail:

• Financial inclusion and self-regulatory organization with a focus on fostering growth with enhanced regulatory compliance and policy constructs;
• Banks and microfinance with a focus on partnership for building provision of financial services to the poor and addressing the issue of skewed financing;
• Universal access to the poor with a focus on the opportunities and challenges of the Nachiket Mor Report;
• Role of technology in new generation microfinance domain;
• Fund flow to the self-help groups (SHGs) sector with a focus on ensuring sustainability of providers;
• Inclusive credit information bureau with a focus on sharing client level data for better risk management;
• Role of the state with a focus on learnings from SHGs and the National Rural Livelihood Mission;
• Conclusions from a dinner with bankers that discussed avenues for alternative funding of MFIs.