COVID19: A Framework for the Microfinance Sector

This note outlines a strategy for the rescue of the microfinance sector (MFS) due to distress caused by the twin health and economic crises. The strategy is based on the authors’ experience with a wide variety of economic and financial crises over the past 30 years - including crises in various East Asian countries, Turkey, Mexico, Argentina, the sovereign debt crises of the 1980s and 1990s - and the efforts to address these episodes by the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve, World Bank, IMF and other official and private institutions.