The Financialization of Micro‐Credit

Abstract

The financial crisis which crested in 2008/2009 sparked much debate regarding the future of global financial governance. Echoing the ways in which that crisis entailed a particular intrusion of ‘high finance’ into everyday lives, the main contention of this article is that critical analyses of finance would benefit from training attention onto the intersections between global finance and the level of the everyday and the mundane. To explore this intersection, this article reviews the increasing ways in which micro‐credit has been financialized. This process of micro/financialization, I argue, has been accomplished in very particular ways which have brought micro‐credit networks and their borrowers more fully into the spaces of global capital markets. This development, however, confronts vulnerable populations of micro‐borrowers with serious risks of various sorts. Most importantly, micro/financialization risks exporting — and globalizing — some of the riskiest parts of financial practices to the ‘poorest of the poor’. I conclude the article by noting the ways in which this involves a particularly dangerous extension of what some commentators have referred to as the ‘democratization of finance’.

“Low Profile” or Entrepreneurial? Gender, Class, and Cultural Adaptation in the Global Microfinance Industry

“…In the microfinance literature, recent studies acknowledge the complexity of the microfinance industry, highlighting the importance of loan officers (Kar, 2013;Sagamba, Shchetinin, & Yusupov, 2013), the local and global institutions involved in the microfinance transaction (Aitken, 2013;Boehe & Cruz, 2013;Haile, Bock, & Folmer, 2012), and the presence of other intermediaries, such as training or business development programs (Epstein & Yuthas, 2013;Sievers & Vandenberg, 2007;Swain & Varghese, 2013). Other studies revisit the premise that women are the best targets for microfinance, aiming sometimes to critique this premise, and sometimes to underscore it (D'Espallier, Guérin, & Mersland, 2011;Maclean, 2013;Moodie, 2013;Swamy, 2014) Yet, we have few clues about how the divergent motivations of stakeholders play out within microfinance organizations invested in particular gendered discourses.…”

Os riscos da financeirização do microcrédito

“…A securitização permite que a IMC empreenda novos créditos sem que tenha recebido pelo primeiro desembolso, transferindo o risco para outros agentes. Esse tipo de operação foi um dos fatores que deflagrou a crise das hipotecas subprime nos EUA em 2007 (AITKEN, 2013).…”

“…A lógica do lucro financeiro incentiva as IMCs a efetuar inúmeros créditos com base em padrões de viabilidade e lucratividade financeira, distanciando, portanto, do interesse de mitigar a pobreza (AITKEN, 2013). O microcrédito, bem como o crédito, tornou-se um fim para ele mesmo, ou seja, pouco interessa o seu impacto na vida dos receptores ou quais agentes irão recebê-lo, o que importa é a sua comercialização e o surgimento de lucros financeiros.…”

“…O alastramento do microcrédito fez com que agências de classificação de microcrédito surgissem, tais como a MicroRate, Planet Rating e Micro Credit Rating International (AITKEN, 2013). O risco da emergência dessas instituições é uma possível analogia com as agências de classificação de crédito que erraram na avaliação dos títulos hipotecários subprime na crise de 2007; denotando bons ratings para títulos de caráter duvidoso, essas agências incentivaram a comercialização desses ativos, o que se concretizou em uma bolha imobiliária.…”

The International Labour Organization and the ambivalent politics of financial inclusion in West Africa

“…In so doing, it neatly obscures the ways in which structural relations of power, including circulations of credit and indebtedness, contribute to the creation of poverty in the first place. Some authors have also made note of the exploitative tendencies implicit in commercialised microcredit, and the increasingly complex financial practices through which microfinance is tied into global circuits of financial capital (Aitken 2013, Soederberg 2013.…”