> Posted by Robin Ratcliffe
In my conversations with microfinance professionals around the world, I can tell it’s now pretty clear there is a deep understanding and yearning in the industry for the incorporation of Smart Microfinance into MFI practices. The top questions MFI staff now have are “where?” and “how?”
Enter The Smart Campaign’s Tools & Resources Library…
The purpose of the Tools & Resources Library is to provide microfinance professionals with the tools they need to turn Principles into Practice within their institutions and organizations. I am really pleased to introduce our latest addition to the library—
Smart Lending: Client Protection in the Credit Process—a veritable roadmap for MFI staff to incorporate client protection practices across the entire loan cycle.
The new Smart Lending tool was developed jointly by a technical team from the Campaign and ACCION Global Programs. The team dissected the entire credit process for individual loans from the moment of first contact with the client until final collection, and identified every instance in that process in which one or more of the Client Protection Principles comes into play. Most important, at each of those intersections the tool provides MFIs with guidelines and recommendations of good practices which focus on providing clients with transparent, respectful and prudent financial services. Heads of MFI credit operations can easily follow the tool’s credit continuum and determine where their institution could improve processes to ensure the highest standards of client protection. Within the coming months the tool will be adapted to group lending methodology.
I hope you take a moment to check out this new valuable tool and share it with your colleagues.
