Microfinance: Beyond philanthropy

Big banks are beginning to look beyond the kudos that socially responsible investment brings and are introducing microfinance to the capital markets as a viable, profitable business. Zach Fuchs reports.

By Zach Fuchs

The rating game

IT’S HARD NOT to catch the microfinance bug. It’s that gleam in the banker’s eye when he realizes that he’s doing good for the world, helping to end the cycle of poverty through sustainable investment. But is there money to be made from it? “Anyone who tells you that they’re in this for business reasons alone is lying to you,” a top European bank’s head of microfinance tells Euromoney. “We have a trillion-dollar balance sheet.

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