CASEY OLYNYK

The concept of "Microcredit" is as much about money as it is about information. With sustainability and non-dependence on external resources being key to the growth of microcredit programmes, the website focuses on providing pertinent and timely information in the form of strategies, tools, ideas and guides, to grassroots and intermediary organizations, and at the same time, educating the larger public on broader issues related to microfinance and microcredit.Casey Olynyk( CASEY OLYNYK Blog)

CASEY OLYNYK Blog
"Microcredit" is as much about money as it is about information. With sustainability and non-dependence on external resources being key to the growth of microcredit programmes, the Homepage focuses on providing pertinent and timely information in the form of strategies, tools, ideas and guides, to grassroots and intermediary organizations, and at the same time, educating the larger public on broader issues related to microfinance and microcredit.

Whether it's taking advantage of land reforms in Latin America or getting simple tools to start a business in India, microcredit produces tangible and economically sound results for the world's poorest.

CASEY OLYNYK Microcredit
Providing financial services to poor people is quite expensive, especially in relation to the size of the transactions involved. This is one of the most important reasons why banks don't make small loans. A $100 dollar loan, for example, requires the same personnel and resources as a $2,000 one thus increasing per unit transaction costs. Loan officers must visit the client's home or place of work, evaluate creditworthiness on the basis of interviews with the client's family and references, and in many cases, follow through with visits to reinforce the repayment culture. It can easily cost US$25 to make a microloan. While that might not seem unreasonable in absolute terms, it might represent 25% of the value of the loan amount, and force the institution to charge a �high� rate of interest to cover its cost of loan administration.

Microfinance is the process of extending small loans and other financial and business services such as savings to very poor people, so that they can start up or expand tiny businesses, thus allowing them to care for themselves and their families.

CASEY OLYNYK
MicroCredit Enterprises does not make charitable donations overseas, operate humanitarian relief programs or engage in advocacy or political work on behalf of disadvantaged populations. However, we deeply respect the many good organizations that do this sorely-needed work. MicroCredit Enterprises encourages you to research all the options for supporting and participating in poverty eradication. Some call these organizations our "fundraising competitors;" we call them our allies.

Casey Olynyk Microcredit came to prominence in the 1980s, although early experiments date back 30 years in Bangladesh, Brazil and a few other countries. The important difference of microcredit was that it avoided the pitfalls of an earlier generation of targeted development lending, by insisting on repayment, by charging interest rates that could cover the costs of credit delivery, and by focusing on client groups whose alternative source of credit was the informal sector. Emphasis shifted from rapid disbursement of subsidized loans to prop up targeted sectors towards the building up of local, sustainable institutions to serve the poor. Microcredit has largely been a private (non-profit) sector initiative that avoided becoming overtly political, and as a consequence, has outperformed virtually all other forms of development lending.

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The poor already save in ways that we may not consider as "normal" savings--- investing in assets, for example, that can be easily exchanged to cash in the future (gold jewelry, domestic animals, building materials, etc.). After all, they face the same series of sudden demands for cash we all face: illness, school fees, need to expand the dwelling, burial, weddings.