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MFIs need a separate regulator: Yunus |
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Mumbai:
Indian Express
Posted: Sat Feb 19 2011, 20:46 hrs
Nobel laureate and Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, who brought
radical changes in the micro-credit area in his country by setting up
the Grameen Bank, called for a separate regulatory mechanism for the
Indian microfinance sector.
"It is not about more or less regulation. What your microfinance sector
needs is a separate set of regulations because the area they operate in
is different from the area of commercial banks and other lending
bodies," he told PTI on the sidelines of a CSR summit, organised by the
Wockhard Foundation.
Yunus, who was answering a question about whether Indian MFI sector
needed more regulation, demanded that companies like SKS Microfinance
and others like it, who have turned "loan-sharks" overnight by
commercialising, should stop calling themselves microfinanciers.
This is the best service they can do to the "real micro- lenders," he said.
"If you want to commercialise, please choose a different name, and not
micro-financiers. Real microfinanciers are not commercially minded. Ours
is not a commercial enterprise but a social business," the professor
said.
He further pointed out that "the ultimate objective of MFIs is to ensure financial inclusion and not making profit.
So long as they work towards this objective, they are microfinance
companies and when they start looking at profit they become loan-sharks
or commercial entities."
Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mfis-need-a-separate-regulator-yunus/752243/
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