In Indonesia, where 110 million people live on less than $2 a day, microfinance is a crowded, fractured field: More than 50,000 microfinance institutions (MFIs) operate there, reaching 50 million poor people. But what about the rest? The Oregon-based antipoverty group Mercy Corps ventured a bold answer in May, when it bought a struggling Balinese bank and reopened it as a wholesale outfit exclusively serving MFIs. The mission of this “bank of banks” is to cut MFIs’ costs and inefficiencies, and provide them with the capital, financial tools, and tech platforms they need to improve and expand their services. “We wanted real impact,” says CEO Neal Keny-Guyer, who argues that microfinance needs such evolutionary leaps to become a sustainable industry. The bank’s first loans were disbursed in the fall, and efforts are under way to expand the model to China, Nepal, and the Philippines.
collections
NewsletterCourses and LearningAdvertiseCurrent IssueFast Government
The future of innovation and technology in government for the greater good
Most Innovative Companies
Our annual guide to the businesses that matter the most
Most Creative People
Leaders who are shaping the future of business in creative ways
World Changing Ideas
New workplaces, new food sources, new medicine--even an entirely new economic system
Innovation By Design
Celebrating the best ideas in business