Is there money to be made from microfinance?

ETHICAL

Jack Lowe, chairman and Vincent Oswald, managing director at socially responsible investments specialist Azure Partners, explain the return potential of this rapidly growing asset class.

In spite of its worldwide reach, microfinance remains a largely unknown quantity for investors. This is understandable: most people think of this activity as a development bank- and NGO- sponsored attempt to alleviate poverty. “Helping the poor has nothing to do with business” is a frequently heard echo. Quite the contrary. Microfinance is a business. It has to be a business that makes profits to create sustainable growth and to allow the institutions to extend their reach to more millions of poor borrowers, hitherto totally unbanked. Since the authors began their active roles in micr...