The document discusses the necessity of pricing transparency in the microfinance industry, highlighting various interest rates and their impacts on clients, including the practice of charging high prices that may exploit poorer clients. It emphasizes the importance of clearly communicating the costs associated with loans to enable clients to make informed comparisons, while addressing the challenges of achieving transparency in a non-transparent environment. The initiative, mftransparency, aims to improve pricing clarity and fairness in microfinance, benefiting both clients and stakeholders.

1. Promoting Transparent Pricing in the Microfinance Industry
Pricing
Transparency,
Profits, IPOs and
Responsible
Microfinance
San Deigo| April 2011

2. The Good News in October 2006

3. … and the bad press a year later

4. Interest rates quoted in Business
Week
• Compartamos (leading MFI): 105%
• Banco Azteca (consumer finance): 90%
• Wal-Mart (corporation): 86%
• Question: Which of these do you consider MFIs?
– Does the public distinguish them?
– Does the government distinguish them?
– Do clients distinguish them?
– Even Business Week really didn’t distinguish them

5. Financial Services for the Poor
3000 Years on One Slide
Moneylenders
From 1000 BC - Present
“Credit Usury”
NGO “projects”
1970’s – 1980’s
Credit-and-training
Very low interest
Double-Bottom Line MFIs
Transformation begins…. 1990’s- 2000’s While supply doesn’t meet
Sustainable demand….
Credit-led
Moderate interest Single-bottom Line
Double-bottom line The temptation
Maximize interest
Some activity is now blurring the lines Maximize profit
between microfinance and moneylending

6. Which loan would you pick?
Zero Interest Interest and And Savings Interest
Loan Fees Only
Loan amount: R1,000 R1,000 R1,000 R1,000
Loan term: 10 weeks 10 weeks 10 weeks 10 weeks
Interest Rate: 0% 15% “flat” 12% “flat” 40% decl
Upfront fee: 5% 2% 1% 0%
Security 0% 0% 20% 0%
deposit:
APR 49% 47% 49% 40%
Transparency 0 32 25 100
Index

7. Profits in Microfinance
Return on Equity, Latin America

8. ROE de Compartamos vs Bancos
Mexicanos

13. Compartamos Accionistas antes
del OPI
Shareholders Invested %
Compartamos AC $2.3M 39.20%
ACCION $1.0M 18.05%
IFC $0.6M 10.57%
18 Individuals $2.0M 32.18%
Total $6.0M 100.00%

14. ACCION’s Investment in Compartamos
ACCION
(NGO) USAID
$1M
ACCION Gateway Fund
$1M
(For-Profit)
Taxpayers
$1M $300M
Compartamos (Sofol)

16. “The median interest rate for
sustainable MFIs was about
26% in 2006.” CGAP Brief
Average
Price

17. Too High!
Responsible Pricing Range
Too
Low!

23. Is there a curve in other
countries?

26. The interesting question:
Are institutions “off-of-the-
curve” pricing responsibly?

27. Possible Conclusion:
The poorer the client, the more
we exploit her by charging higher
prices

28. In the Philippines, we find a curve not only for
prices, but also for Operating Costs.

29. Common industry benchmark of 15-20%
OpCost Ratio is appropriate for larger loans

30. But smaller loans generate an Op Cost
Ratio well in excess of 20%

32. Comparison of the Cost Curve and
the Price Curve

36. Reality:
The price curve is inevitable

39. What price would be needed on a $1 loan for a
year? To generate $20 of income over the year
would require an annual interest rate of 2000%

40. The success of microfinance has been to push
the limits of when the curve starts its upward
bend. But there are limits. We cannot
sustainably give extremely small loans.

41. Cost Components that Affect
Pricing
Component
Financial Costs 10%
Loan Loss 2%
Operating Costs 20%
Profit 3%
Total Price 35%

42. Comparing “theory” with actual
data
 The following graphs analyze data from
over 600 MFIs around the world
◦ All data comes from The MIX
◦ The first set of graphs display operating cost
ratios relative to loan size
◦ Later graphs then show the yield on portfolio
relative to loan size

43. Efficiency: Operating Cost Ratio
 The formula for the ratio:
Annual Operational Cost
------------------------------
Average Loan Portfoliio
 We will do an analysis at the level of a
single loan

74. Pricing for Different Products
Component $100 Loan $1000 Loan
Financial Costs 10% 10%
Loan Loss 2% 2%
Operating Costs 50% 15%
Profit 10% 10%
Total Price 72% 37%

75. Lack of Transparent Pricing
The way we communicate prices
to our clients is far from
transparent

76. What is Transparent Pricing?
The pricing, terms, and conditions of financial
products will be adequately disclosed to the clients
in a clear manner that allows both
• Accurate understanding of prices, and
• Ability to compare different products.

77. Example of Loan Pricing
 Interest rate of 3% per month
 Small closing fee of 2%
 Savings account with 15% of loan
 We pay you 5% interest on your savings
 What do you think the APR of this loan is?
 (we will calculate APR without compounding, i.e,
using the US formula, not the EU formula)

78. Declining Balance interest reflects the textbook definition of interest as a charge for the
use of money over time. APR is equivalent to declining balance interest with no fees.

79. With “Flat” interest, interest is charged on the original loan amount resulting in nearly
double the cost of declining balance interest. Why double? The area of the rectangle
under the green line is almost double the area under the red stair-step loan balance.

80. In addition, the client is often charged fees for the loan. In this example, a 2% up-front fee,
because of the short loan term, surprisingly adds 13% to the APR. A loan advertised as 36%
interest is now the equivalent of 78% APR.

81. The red area shows money
invested in business.
The blue line shows money held in savings.
Compulsory savings adds to the cost. Clients are charged interest on the original loan ($1000)
even though they never have use of that amount. In this example, the APR is now 107%.

82. Clients are paid interest, but significantly less interest on their savings than they are charged on
their loans. When earning 5% interest, the APR only drops from 107% to 105%.

83. In this example, the client pays a total cost of $131 for the $1,000 loan for 16 weeks. If she were
to renew the loan consistently for an entire year, she would pay a total of $425 for the year.

84. Average net loan balance is $360
But, the client never had a $1,000. She only received $850 because of the savings, and
then she paid back a portion each week. She paid $425 to have an average loan balance
of $360 for a year, giving an APR greater than 100%.

85. And with compulsory savings there are some months in which the client actually has more
money in savings than invested in her business, giving a negative net loan balance.

86. Which loan looks less expensive?
Loan Product Initial Loan Total Cost Length of Loan APR
Amount
Loan Option A $1,000 $131 16 weeks 79%
Loan Option B $511 $425 12 months 79%
Loan Option C $360 $425 12 months 105%
The three products we were comparing are actually
identical in financial terms.
Loan C includes cost of compulsory savings in the APR calculation.
Loans advertised as 3% per month can have APRs of 79% or even 105%

87. How can the industry advocate
pricing transparency?
 The challenge is how to practice transparency
in an environment where non-transparency is
the norm…
It is very difficult to be the first or only MFI
practicing transparent pricing!
• MFTransparency will create the proper
“enabling environment”
• Enable industry-supported “truth-in-lending”
• Publish APR-equivalent interest rates all-at-once,
country-by-country
• Educate the public on why interest rates vary by
loan size
87

88. Who will monitor
MFTransparency Info?
“MFIs will find the service of MFTransparency very helpful.
Investors, donors, policy makers, researchers, and practitioners
will immensely benefit from their service.”
Muhammad Yunus, Managing Director, Grameen Bank
“MFTransparency aims at giving MFIs information to offer
better value to customers. And it will give investors and others
the information they need to put pressure on those
institutions that may be charging unreasonably high fees or
hiding the full cost of their services. We applaud the effort.”
Elizabeth Littlefield, CEO, CGAP
88

89. How does MFT work?
Work with
Country Data
MFIs one-on-
selection verification
one, if needed
Data collection Data Data analysis
preparation Collection & synthesis
Meetings with Training
Dissemination
market workshops in
of pricing data
stakeholders country
89

90. A long-overlooked need
“We have made major investments in improving
the quality and clarity of information on
microfinance institutions. But we have not yet
invested as much as we should in making sure
costs of financial services for poor clients are
clear and fair. MFTransparency’s initiative is
a bold one that promises to fill an
important gap.”
Elizabeth Littlefield, Director and CEO, CGAP
90