MFTransparency started publishing the true costs of microfinance loans in specific countries earlier this month.  Next week we will present a webinar to discuss what we found out about interest rates in Bosnia, Cambodia and Peru.  We invite you to participate in this webinar to discuss questions like:

• How do banks and MFIs respond when asked to report their interest and fees publicly in a common APR or EIR format?
• How do government policies affect the prices for loans in a country?
• Does the average price of loans increase as loan sizes get smaller, and how does the shape of the price curve differ in different countries?
• How much variation is there in price on loans of similar size, and how might transparency change prices over time?

We want to include as many people as possible in this important discussion, so we will be holding the webinar twice to cover daylight hours in as many time zones as possible.  Here are the times and registration links for the MFTransparency Webinars:

Title: MFTransparency Data Launch Call 1
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (and Thursday November 19 in some time zones)
Time: 10:00 PM – 11:30 PM EST (2:00 PM Sydney, 10:00 AM Jakarta and Dhaka, 8:30 AM New Delhi, 6:00 AM Nairobi)
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/835845168

Title: MFTransparency Data Launch Call 2
Date: Friday, November 20, 2009
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST (6:00 PM Nairobi, 5:00 PM Frankfurt, 2 PM Sao Paulo, 12 noon La Paz, 10 AM Mexico City)
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/602014793

We will be using GoToMeeting to host this webinar so that you will be able to follow our graphs of the data and send us your questions about it.  You will need to register with them in advance.  Please choose which time will work best for you and click on the appropriate link to register as soon as possible, since places are limited.

We look forward to talking with you next week about the potential impact of new era of interest rate transparency for microfinance!

Last 3 posts by Larry Reed

• Cambodia Discussion - October 22nd, 2009

Tags: Bosnia, Cambodia, Peru

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