MFTransparency would like to thank everyone who participated in the MFTransparency Data Launch Webinar.  Both sessions were well-attended and followed by a lively Question & Answer session. Participants for each session of the webinar represented numerous different countries and a wide range of microfinance industry stakeholders. MFTransparency would also like to thank Robert Annibale of Citigroup and Tor G. Gull of Oikocredit for contributing to the webinar as guest speakers.

View the Webinar

For anyone unable to attend or interested in viewing the webinar again, a recording of the webinar is available in the following twelve-part series:

Question & Answer Session

The webinar presentations were followed by a series of insightful questions from the participants. Due to the high volume of questions the presenters were unable to address all questions during the webinar. The following are questions that the presenters did not have time for during the webinar. Please check back soon for answers.

• Are there potential downsides? Might clients try to switch from MFIs to banks to get bigger (maybe too big) loans because they learn that banks offer lower APRs?

• How can MFIs communicate fair and transparent prices when the motivations behind consumer preferences are “economically nonlogical”.  What info should be communicated to the client?

• In some countries many MFIs also make it compulsory for clients to take out credit life insurance. Is this cost also factored into MFTransparency‘s APR?

• Question on methodology: How does the new methodology (of bunching toward micro and seeking to compare similar loan sizes) affect the datal collection process? Are all institutions included in a country? Are certain products excluded?

• With the example of Cambodia where you have a flat interest curve, would you agree that commercialization of MFIs works better?

• There is ongoing initiative on identifying common indicators for social performance reporting in the microfinance sector. Wich specific indicator on pricing transparency would you suggest to be included. Would the question ‘Is the MFI informing the clients on the APR and EIR of a loan?’ be sufficient?

• This is a general transparency question: How does MF Transparency translation down to the client level? Is there a financial knowledge base that will allow clients to understand what APR is or are they more interested in the size of a weekly loan payment?

• Once mortgage calculators were avail on the net in the West, individuals have been able to make better decisions. Are there plans to make MFT’s calculator and a given country’s interactive graph for that country made avail to clients of MFIs that are working with MFT

If you would like to own a DVD of this webinar instead of viewing it online, please contact Howard Brady, hbrady@mfiresources.org with the subject “Webinar DVD” and he will make sure that you get a copy of the webinar via regular postal mail.

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