The Dominican Republic's microfinance sector is considered to be a solid market where over-indebtedness prevention best practices are widely and successfully implemented. Relying on qualitative data collection tools and analysis, we identify these ‘best practices’ as self-regulation mechanisms, and we show how they fail to fully fulfil their goals in the Dominican market. While financial exclusion supports the idea of a sizable microcredit market, we argue that the focus on growth and high competition strongly jeopardizes the positive social outcomes of microcredit, and that only a paradigm shift within the sector will really change the present situation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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This paper studies the relations between micro credit and territory, assuming that micro credit is an important instrument for fighting against poverty and social exclusion. Based on a micro-level database provided by ANDC (Associação Nacional de Direito ao Crédito), a statistical and econometric study has been undertaken in order to identify the territorial idiosyncrasies associated with the employment of micro credit in Portugal. Focusing on the survival of micro credit projects during the period 2006-2009, our study demonstrates the significance for a firm’s survival of variables such as population density, value added growth in each activity and promoters’ qualifications, as well as two regional dummies.

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