Ashok Kumar, Executive Director, Livelihoods & Value Chains, M-CRIL and a renowned expert of the Farmer Producer Organisations/producer companies (FPO) and livelihoods sector was invited to present on‘’M-CRIL’s FPO Rating & Assessment Tools’’ at a workshop on ‘’Contemporary Issues related to FPOs” organized by FWWB, Ahmedabad on 29-30 October 2018. At the same workshop, he was also invited to participate in a panel discussion on ‘’FPO governance and compliances’’.

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In addition to explaining the FPO rating & assessment framework designed by M-CRIL, Ashok shared key findings and issues based on experience of ratings/assessment of 20 FPOs undertaken by M-CRIL, including some of the largest FPOs across India. Amongst several aspects, the presentation recommended the way forward to make FPO ratings as a standardized tool to assess FPOs to help ease their access to loans from commercial banks, development finance banks and NBFCs.  Additionally, the rating and assessment exercise identifies specific areas of weakness that the concerned FPO can focus on to improve its performance.

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The latest Global Microscope report 2018 by The Economist Intelligence Unit has been released. This is a compendium on the state of financial inclusion in 55 countries that have been benchmarked and ranked. M-CRIL has contributed to the benchmarking of the regulatory and operational environments in 9 of the 55 countries. This contribution entailed detailed research on policy and regulations as well as interviews with government officials, regulators, heads of financial institutions and other stakeholders such as digital financial service providers. For this purpose, M-CRIL was able to leverage its extensive experience of the financial sector in multiple countries of Asia and Africa.
For the latest 2018 report please click here

Sanjay Sinha, MD, M-CRIL and renowned expert of the MFI sector in Asia was invited to present the key note address at a workshop on” Multiple Borrowing and Indebtedness In Myanmar” organized by Cordaid Netherlands, Myanmar Microfinance Association (MMFA), ADA Luxembourg and UNCDF In Yangon, Myanmar on 08 October 2018.

He presented the findings from a survey and analysis carried out by M-CRIL of multiple borrowing amongst MFI clients in 5 regions of Myanmar. Amongst other findings, the presentation highlighted concerns about the role of the number of loans per client rather than the absolute loan outstanding per client, from both MFIs and client perspectives vis-vis repayment difficulties. Recommendations arising out of the study were also presented to microfinance stakeholders for their consideration. For more interesting insights on this topic , please click here

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $1.5 million equity investment agreement with Micro-Credit Ratings International Limited (M-CRIL). The investment is a part of ADB’s programme to Strengthen Microfinance Ecosystem in Asia. The agreement was signed by Christine Engstrom, ADB’s Director for Private Sector Operations – Financial Institutions, and Sanjay Sinha, Managing Director of M-CRIL.

ADB News Release, New Delhi, India – 14 February 2017.

M-CRIL has undertaken some of the country reviews for this publication over the past three years.  During 2016 the M-CRIL team undertook the country reviews for a number of countries in Asia and Africa. Apart from the country reviews our MD, Mr Sanjay Sinha contributed additional perspectives on the use of inclusive finance accounts and on P2P lending to the Key Findings section.

The complete index, as well as detailed country analysis, can be viewed on click here

M-CRIL and EDA have made a major commitment to Nepal which has been an important focus country for our work. We have been active in Nepal since 1988. Our work in Nepal has included

• MFI ratings& assessments; development of risk management systems and assessment tools
• Reviews of financial inclusion and the microfinance sector, evaluation of cooperative support programme…
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