Commentary: The Problems With Micro-Lending

From the Berkeley Daily Planet:
Former UN advisor Sally Wiliams comments on Micro-Lending.

"As Krishna Bhattacharjee pointed out in his commentary, micro-lending is now being implemented in 50 countries; but he did not explain that the conflict between do-gooders and profit minded do-gooders that defines the current debate in this new profitable market. Micro-financing has become a global market with micro-finance futures that tend to serve the “less poor” rather than serving as a channel out of desperate poverty. Banks such as Citigroup and Duetsche Bank have gotten into the game of helping the “un-banked” become new clients. Their goal is financial inclusion, not reducing poverty. Carlos Labrathe, CEO of Compartamos, the McDonald’s of village banking in Mexico, predicts that in five years 80 to 90 percent of all micro-finance institutions will be for-profit institutions."