Peru’s Client Voice research included the perspectives of 1,000 current and former microfinance clients to identify consumer protection challenges and opportunities in the country. The Smart Campaign selected Peru as the market in Latin America for the Client Voices project because of its strong consumer protection regulations, recourse mechanism, and well-functioning credit reporting system.
<blockquote>The top concerns that emerged for clients in Peru are prevention of over-indebtedness, transparency, and fair and respectful treatment of clients.</blockquote>
Between January and July 2015, Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA) and Datum International, a local research firm, conducted qualitative and quantitative research. Peruvian clients of savings and loan institutions, cooperatives, and NGOs offering group loans participated in the qualitative research. The quantitative research included 550 current clients and 450 former clients.

Peru has a favorable environment for financial services, in recent years earning the top spot in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Microscope rankings. Although a strong government consumer complaints institution (INDECOPI) exists, over-indebtedness, transparency, and fair and respectful treatment emerge as the most prevalent concerns for clients in Peru. Addressing these concerns requires a market-level approach that takes into consideration the unique role that regulators, the microfinance industry, and clients themselves each must play.

Client Voices: Peru Country Report

Bankable Frontier Associates

The Smart Campaign

Latin America and The Caribbean

Peru

Keeping Clients First

Client Treatment

Consumer Protection

Financial Service Providers

Microfinance Institutions

Over-indebtedness

Transparency

Report

Georgia Client Voice research included the perspectives of 1,000 current and former microfinance clients to identify the consumer protection impediments that persist in the country. The Smart Campaign selected Georgia as the market in Eastern Europe and Central Asia for the Client Voices project for several reasons, primarily because of the current regulatory reform at the national level. As the Consumer Protection Division becomes its own entity, operating outside of the regime of the National Bank of Georgia, this research will enrich the discussion and inform the next steps in the country’s consumer protection arena. The building blocks for a thriving industry are already set, including a credit bureau, CreditInfo. Regulators, local partners, and microfinance institutions all have a role to play to raise awareness among clients and cement customer protection in the industry.
<blockquote>Top concerns among microfinance clients in Georgia are: over-indebtedness, appropriate product design and delivery, and transparency.</blockquote>
Various research methods were implemented in the qualitative phase, including focus group discussions, individual in-depth interviews, and a photography exercise to gain a deeper and contextualized understanding of clients’ views of good and bad treatment. The quantitative sample consisted of 800 currently clients and 200 former clients, 59 percent of whom were women.

The research finds that the majority of clients, around 66 percent, are happy with their institutions and thus stay with their institutions for a long time. Primarily, microfinance institutions’ service and treatment was ranked as matching or exceeding commercial banks. However, clients’ understanding of terms and conditions is still lacking, especially around the high risks associated with taking loans in U.S. Dollars.

Client Voices: Georgia Country Report

Europe and Central Asia

Georgia

Appropriate Product Design and Delivery

Pakistan’s Client Voice research includes the voices of roughly 1,000 current and former microfinance clients to identify consumer protection challenges in the country. The Smart Campaign selected Pakistan as the market in Asia for the Client Voices project for several reasons. Notably, a priority objective of this research is to catalyze industry discussion, which requires strong and engaged local partners. The Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) has long-demonstrated its leadership and commitment to client protection among its members and was a natural partner for this exercise.
<blockquote>Top concerns among microfinance clients in Pakistan are transparency, fair and respectful treatment of clients, and mechanisms for resolving complaints.</blockquote>
Between March and October 2014, Bankable Frontier Associates conducted qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative portion included individual interviews as well as participants taking photographs that represented their positive and negative experiences with microfinance. On the quantitative end, over 900 clients and 100 former clients participated in a survey expressing any concerns related to microfinance practices.

The research confirms Pakistan’s advanced consumer protection ecosystem while underlining the issues that persist. Key client protection risks emerged around the issues of harsh treatment of clients, inflexibility in the case of late repayment, and unclear terms and conditions. Unlike other markets, the regulatory environment for the microfinance industry is well-developed in Pakistan with the Credit Information Bureau (MF-CIB) exclusively monitoring activity.

Building on the country’s strong regulatory environment and addressing these client protection concerns requires a market-level approach that takes into consideration the unique role that regulators, local partners, microfinance institutions, networks, and clients themselves each must play.

Client Voices: Pakistan Country Report

Pakistan

South Asia

Complaint Resolution

Benin’s Client Voice research includes the voices of over 1,500 current and former microfinance clients to understand the market’s consumer protection challenges. The Smart Campaign selected Benin as the African market for the Client Voices project for several reasons. First was the need for more demand-side research in Francophone West Africa, as relative to Anglophone East Africa. The Campaign also believed that the relevance of the Benin findings would likely extend beyond the country itself to the other seven members of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) given their operating under a common regulatory regime. Finally, Benin was selected because of the engagement of local stakeholders such as the Consortium Alafia – a 34-member local microfinance association.
<blockquote>Transparency, fair and respectful treatment of clients, and complaint resolutions mechanisms are the key consumer protection concerns for clients in Benin.</blockquote>
From May – October 2014, Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA) and its local research partner the Centre pour L’Environment et le Developpement en Afrique, Benin (CEDA Benin) carried out qualitative and quantitative research. The quantitative survey reached 1,733 Beninois (1,028 current MFI clients, 526 former clients, and 179 non-clients).

Key client protection risks emerged around the issues of transparency, fair treatment and complaint resolution mechanisms. Addressing these concerns requires a market-level approach that takes into consideration the unique role that regulators, the MFI industry, and clients themselves each must play. This page contains the results of the initial qualitative research, the follow-up quantitative survey and the final country report which weaves both pieces together. Finally the page has a link to the raw, anonymized data from the quantitative survey along with the survey instrument so that fellow researchers and client protection data wonks can play draw their own conclusions.

Client Voices: Benin Country Report

Benin