Credit Risk Management in Microfinance: Strategies for Protecting Loan Portfolios
Credit is at the heart of the microfinance business. Microfinance institutions provide relatively small loans to individuals, households, entrepreneurs, and small businesses, often serving customers who may have limited access to conventional banking. This creates an important challenge. An MFI needs to expand financial access while ensuring that borrowers can realistically repay their loans. If credit decisions are weak, repayment problems can increase quickly. A deteriorating loan portfolio can then affect liquidity, profitability, capital requirements, investor confidence, and the institution's ability to continue lending. For this reason, credit risk management should be one of the strongest components of Risk Management in Microfinance . A comprehensive approach involves much more than checking whether a borrower has repaid previous loans. It requires appropriate borrower assessment, exposure controls, portfolio monitoring, early-warning indicators, collection processes, and c...