Lending Policies and Eligibility Criteria
Lending PoliciesMicroCredit Enterprises gives priority to microfinance institutions that:
Eligibility Criteria
MicroCredit Enterprises assesses four basic factors to evaluate the creditworthiness of an MFI:
To receive financing from MicroCredit Enterprises, an MFI must:
- Serve a high percentage of deeply-impoverished individuals and families
- Serve a high percentage of women
- Extend operations to isolated rural communities
- Operate or provide linkages to comprehensive social service programs, such as women's empowerment, financial literacy, health education or services and business training for micro-entrepreneurs
- Demonstrate a track record of lowering interest rates to impoverished client-borrowers
Eligibility Criteria
MicroCredit Enterprises assesses four basic factors to evaluate the creditworthiness of an MFI:
- Quality and integrity of the management and Board of Directors
- Quality of the client-borrower loan portfolio
- Financial performance and prospects for growth
- Stability of the political, economic and legal environment of the country
To receive financing from MicroCredit Enterprises, an MFI must:
- Serve at least 5,000 borrowers or have a minimum US$1,000,000 gross loan portfolio
- Maintain portfolio-at-risk (i.e., outstanding balance of all loans with payments in arrears beyond 30 days) below 10%
- Be operationally self-sufficient or demonstrate a clear plan to achieve operational self-sufficiency
- Provide independent audit reports covering at least the two most recent years
- Have a business plan with three years of financial projections
- Present a credit rating or other similar external evaluation/recommendation
- Post a financial and operational profile at The MIX Market, the microfinance industry's clearinghouse for standardized information about the financial strength and performance of MFIs
- Additionally, MicroCredit Enterprises’ loan or guarantee may not exceed thirty five percent of an MFI’s gross loan portfolio
