Timed Impulse

This is follow up on my previous post on how rural financing and lending in India have changed irrevocably due to Demonetization and Digitization.

Unfortunately in India, loans are expensive for the poor. The Public Sector Banks will not lend to the poorest outside of the agricultural loans and political sops. At the same time all other goods are subsidized for the poor because they are funded by public taxes. Continue reading “Digitization & Demonetization: Has Microfinance Lending in India changed forever?”

The last few months have been testing for NBFCs in general. Demonetization was a black swan event that brought fears of a repeat of the AP Crisis in 2010 that served a near death blow to Microfinance in India.

On paper, Microfinance remains a fragile business model when compared to banks and depository institutions.

Microcredit:

Borrow -> Lend at spread of 10-15%

Banks:

Deposits + Borrowings (RBI, Bonds etc.) -> Lend at net interest margins of 2-5%

Without the cushion of deposits, an MFI must disburse what it borrows, and borrow more to grow its loan book. The cost of customer acquisition for MFIs is also higher than banks.

Continue reading “Microfinance : Demonetization. Budget. Beyond”