micro finance - one of the key drivers of financial inclusion by shrawan dwivedi

8/13/2019 Micro finance - One of the Key Drivers of Financial Inclusion by Shrawan Dwivedi

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MICROFINANCE- ONE OF THE KEY DRIVERS OF

FINANCIAL INCLUSION

A Research Paper by:Shrawan Dwivedi


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Microfinance-One Of The Key Drivers Of Financial Inclusion

2www.shrawandwivedi.com +91 8179130135

ABSTRACT

Microfinance can be defined as the provision of a broad range of financial services such as deposits,

loans, payment services, money transfers and insurance to poor and low-income households and their

micro-enterprises. Microfinance is a powerful tool for achieving higher levels of financial inclusion ineconomies. Microfinance is one of the key drivers which affect the financial inclusion. Increased

inclusion brings both efficiency and equity benefits. Microfinance is also revealing substantial

commercial opportunities and attracting growing private capital flows.

Financial Inclusion is enabling of banking services at an affordable cost to the vast sections of

disadvantaged and low-income groups. As banking services are in the nature of public service, provision

of banking and payment services to the entire population without discrimination should be the prime

objective of the public policy.

Microfinance programmers are intended to reach poor segments of society as they lack access to

financial services. It seeks to reach out to the excluded category of population from the banking system.

Financial inclusion is not just credit dispensation, its about connecting the people with the banking

system for availing bouquet of financial services including access to payment system.

Only 48% of Indian population is accessing financial services(According to the World Bank 2008

survey). Expansion of the micro finance sector is also important from the perspective of financial

inclusion. Since 2004 the R.B.I. has also emphasized financial inclusion as an important goal. Financial

Inclusion is a most useful frame of reference for considering how poverty might be reduced through

provision of financial services. And micro finance remains the most potent weapon available for

reducing financial exclusion. Microfinance in Indian region is growing and developing, and the

possibilities for microfinance to play a significant role in an economic development are increasing.

KEYWORDS:

Microfinance, Financial inclusion, Economies, Capital flows, Income group.


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INTRODUCTION

Financial Inclusionis the delivery of banking services at affordable costs to vast sections of

disadvantaged and low income groups. Unrestrained access to public goods and services is the sine qua

nonof an open and efficient society. It is argued that as banking services are in the nature of publicgood, it is essential that availability of banking and payment services to the entire population without

discrimination is the prime objective of public policy. The term Financial Inclusion has gained importance

since the early 2000s, and is a result of findings about Financial Exclusion and its direct correlation to

poverty. Financial Inclusion is now a common objective for many central banks among the developing

nations.

Rangarajan's committee on financial inclusion defines it as:

"Financial inclusion may be defined as the process of ensuring access to financial services and timely

and adequate credit where needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income

groups at an affordable cost."

The financial services include the entire gamut - savings, loans, insurance, credit, payments etc. The

financial system has to provide its function of transferring resources from surplus to deficit units but

both deficit and surplus units are those with low incomes, poor background etc. By providing these

services, the aim is to help them come out of poverty. So far, the focus has only been on delivering

credit (it is called as microfinance but is microcredit) and has been quite successful. Similar success has

to be seen in other aspects of finance as well.

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and

the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services. The basic principle onwhich Microfinance is based has been described as a process in which poor families borrow large

amounts (or lump sums) of money at one time and repay the amount in a stream of small, manageable

payments over a realistic time period using social collateral in the short run and institutional credit

history in the long run. Families can reborrow slightly bigger amounts upon repayment in a predictable

and reliable way.

The definition for microfinance is best given by Robinson, Marguerite.

Microfinance refers to small-scale financial services for both credits and deposits that are provided

to people who farm or fish or herd; operate small or microenterprises where goods are produced,

recycled, repaired, or traded; provide services; work for wages or commissions; gain income from

renting out small amounts of land, vehicles, draft animals, or machinery and tools; and to other

individuals and local groups in developing countries, in both rural and urban areas.


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OBJECTIVE:

The main purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the effects of Microfinance as a part of Financial

Inclusion in India. Microfinance is often considered as a tool in the fight against poverty while it has to

be understood first and foremost as a tool against financial exclusion. This clarification is essential andthe term "financial inclusion" is much more appropriate than "microfinance".

SCOPE:

Financial Inclusion should include access to financial products and services like,

Bank accountscheck in account Immediate Credit Savings products Remittances & Payment services Insurance - Healthcare Mortgage Financial advisory services Entrepreneurial credit


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CURRENT STATUS:

Though there has been widespread prevalence of exclusion, it is, however, important to recognize that

in the policy framework for development of the formal financial system in India, the need for financial

inclusion and covering more and more of the excluded population by the formal financial system hasalways been consciously emphasized by the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Government not to

speak of the initiatives of commercial banks.

The spread of banking facilities, though impressive, has been uneven in the country, throwing up

challenges for achieving financial inclusion. In fact, despite impressive growth of branch network in

India, the vast sections of the society remain financially excluded and continue to remain away from the

formal system and thereby access to financial services including savings, credit and insurance. The

banking industry in India has shown tremendous growth in volume and complexity during the last few

decades. We have an extensive banking infrastructure comprising 33,411 rural and semi-urban branches

of commercial banks over 14,501 branches of RRBs, around 12,000 branches of DCCBs and nearly

1,00,000 cooperatives credit societies at the village level. There is at least one retail credit outlet on an

average for about 5,000 rural people, which translates into one outlet for every 1,000 households. This

is a remarkable and extensive work. Given this network the moot question would be Are the financial

services needs of the rural poor comprehensively met by this network?'

The picture is none too impressive, going by the available data on the number of savings accounts and

even assuming that one person has only one account, on an all India basis only 59 per cent of adult

population in the country has bank accounts. The unbanked population is higher in the North Eastern

and Eastern Regions as compared to other regions. Further, the extent of credit inclusion is even lower

at 14 per cent of adult population. The financially excluded sections largely comprise marginal farmers,

landless laborers, oral lessees, self employed and unorganized sector enterprises, urban slum dwellers,

migrants, ethnic minorities and socially excluded groups, senior citizens and women.


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ISSUES AND CHALLENGES:

The vast segments of population particularly poor segment of society are out of the formalfinancial system. The financial inclusion process should take the banking services to the poor

rather than poor people coming to the bank for availing the services. For sustaining the financial inclusion, the financial literacy becomes a very critical component.

There is a need to simultaneously focus on the financial literacy part besides the delivery /

access.

Penetration of insurance servicesInsurance services largely remain as the urban phenomena.It should reach out to the rural and remote areas and to the poor segments of the societies.

Micro Insurance Services should be given greater importance while extending the financial

services.

Cost effective technologies and applications in appropriate manner. Access to payment services through technology. Regional imbalances in the financial inclusion process are quite visible and there is a need for

the microfinance movement to the broad based in North India to make the financial inclusion

more meaningful and inclusive.

Why Low-Income Families Like/Dislike Banks In India..?

LIKES:-

Very low interest rates In the south, large loans easily obtained against gold Very little or no follow up on the loans and little pressure to repay Likely waiver of the loans by the government because of political reasons The Kisan Credit Card (KCC) enables easy access to credit for farmers for at least the first year.

DISLIKES:-

Bank loans involve multiple time-consuming formalities Mainly accessible to those with contacts or who can bribe officials

For subsidized loans under priority sector schemes, the local panchayats decide the list ofbeneficiaries, which is subject to favoritism

The poor do not have everything to offer as collateral (land or gold) and, therefore, cannotobtain regular bank loans.

Poorer women (especially in the north) lack confidence, contacts, and understanding of bankprocedures.


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Poor people borrow from informal moneylenders and save with informal collectors. They receive loansand grants from charities. They buy insurance from state-owned companies. They receive funds

transfers through formal or informal remittance networks. It is not easy to distinguish microfinance from

similar activities. It could be claimed that a government that orders state banks to open deposit

accounts for poor consumers, or a moneylender that engages in usury, or a charity that runs a heifer

pool are engaged in microfinance.

Some principles that summarize a century and a half of development practice were encapsulated in

2004 by Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and endorsed by the Group of Eight leaders at the

G8 Summit on June 10, 2004.

1. Poor people need not just loans but also savings, insurance and money transfer services.2. Microfinance must be useful to poor households: helping them raise income, build up assets

and/or cushion themselves against external shocks.

3. Microfinance can pay for itself. Subsidies from donors and government are scarce anduncertain, and so to reach large numbers of poor people, microfinance must pay for itself.

4. Microfinance means building permanent local institutions.


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5. Microfinance also means integrating the financial needs of poor people into a country'smainstream financial system.

6. The job of government is to enable financial services, not to provide them.7. Donor funds should complement private capital, not compete with it.8. The key bottleneck is the shortage of strong institutions and managers." Donors should focus

on capacity building.

9. Interest rate ceilings hurt poor people by preventing microfinance institutions from coveringtheir costs, which chokes off the supply of credit.

10.Microfinance institutions should measure and disclose their performance both financiallyand socially.

Microfinance is clearly distinguishable from charity. Families who are destitute, or so poor they are

unlikely to be able to generate the cash flow required to repay a loan, should be recipients of charity.

Others are best served by financial institutions.


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FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN INDIA STATISTICS:

Financial inclusion in developing economies is different than that of developed economies. In latter

where inclusion is a minority, informer it could be a majority.

Anil Ambani, the billionaire chairman of Reliance-Anil DhirubhaiAmbani Group, said in the recent annual

general meeting of one of his group firms that nearly 400 million Indians have bank accounts. Thats less

than 40% of the countrys population.

Reserve Bank of India deputy governor, in a recent presentation on financial inclusion in Mumbai, said

about 40% Indians have check-in accounts. Going by his presentation, 51 out of every 100 Indians had

bank accounts in 1993. This has marginally gone up to 54 in 2007.

Yet another presentation by another central banker, a few years back, had said 59% of adult population

in India has bank accounts and that there is a large gap between the coverage of banking services in

urban and rural pockets. In rural India, the coverage among the adult population is 39% against 60% inurban India. This, of course, doesnt necessarily mean that 60 out of every 100 Indian adults in cities

have bank accounts as many people operate multiple accounts.

Source: Rakesh Mohan, RBI, IDBI Gilts Ltd.

Figure 1: Distribution of Bank offices in India (in %)

0

20

40

60

80

100

1969 1996 2005 2006 2007

Metropolitan

Urban

Semi-urban

Rural


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Figure 1shows that rural and Semi-urban offices constitute a majority of the Commercial Bank offices in

India. Rural bank offices as a % of total have increased from 22% in 1969 to 41% in 2007. This is mainly

because of the inclusive focus of the policymakers mentioned above. However, that is just one part of

the story.

Source: Rakesh Mohan, RBI, IDBI Gilts Ltd.

Figure 2: Sources of Deposits and Credit in India (in %)

If we look at figure 2, it can be seen that bulk of the deposits received and credit allocated is to the

urban and metropolitan areas. In fact, the share of rural and semi-urban in deposits and credit has been

declining. Table 1 provides further clarity providing a break-up of the deposit accounts. Both the deposit

and credit accounts are lower in rural households than urban households. Hence despite the rural-push,

the rural population has not come forward and avail even basic banking services.

The sources of these information are different and I cannot vouch for their accuracy but the fact remains

that the coverage of banking services in the worlds second fastest growing major economy is very low,

compared with a developed country. A British Bankers Association survey says 92-94% of the

population in the UK has either current or savings accounts.

The low coverage is true for other financial services as well. Ambanis presentation says barely 45 million

Indians invest in mutual funds. This is about 4% of Indias population. The comparable figure for the US

is 31%. When it comes to direct investment in equities, the number drops drastically and only 15 million

Indians hold demat (electronic share) accounts that one needs to buy stocks.

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Metropolitan

urban

Semi-urban

Rural


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The situation has definitely changed for the better with banks aggressively opening no-frill accounts,

that require very low or zero minimum balance but a recent study by Skoch Development Foundation, a

strategy and management consultancy, says only 11% of 25.1 million such basic banking accounts,

opened between April 2007 and May 2009, are operational. This means the business correspondent or

BC model that the Indian central bank is using to spread banking services across the country has failed.

This model allows non-governmental organizations, self-help groups, microfinance organizations,

farmers clubs, post offices, cooperatives, panchayats and many others, including IT-enabled rural

outlets of corporate entities and insurance agents to act as intermediaries on commission.

The regulator and the banks need to address this immediately. Mere opening of accounts and branch

expansion will not solve the problem. The biggest challenge before Indian banks is lowering transaction

costs for small loans and deposits, using technology.

India has around403 million mobile users of whom, about 46%, or 187 million, don't even have bank

accounts. People can do without bank accounts but not mobile phones. Nearly 400 millionIndians have

bank account thats less than40% of the countrys population. About40% Indians have check-in

accounts. 51 out of every 100Indians had bank accounts in 1993.This has marginally gone up to 54 in

2007.

59%of adult population in India has bank accounts and that there is a large gap between the coverage

of banking services in urban and rural pockets. In rural India, the coverage among the adult population

is 39% against 60%in urban India. This, of course, doesnt necessarily mean that60 out of every

100Indian adults in cities have bank accounts.

About 45 million Indians invest in mutual funds. When it comes to direct investment in equities, the

number drops drastically and only 15 millionIndians hold Demat accounts that one needs to buy stocks.

Nearly 80%of the Indian population is without life, health and non-life insurance coverage. While life

insurance penetration is 4%, non-life cover is even lower at 0.6%. The per capita spend on life and non-

life insurance is just about Rs2,000and Rs300, respectively, compared with a global average of at

least Rs18,000and Rs13,000.

Only 5.2%of Indias650,000 villageshave bank branches even though 39.7%of the overall branch

network of Indian banks, or 31,727, are in rural India. The population covered by each branch has come

down from 63,000in 1969 to 16,000in 2007 and the total number of check-in accounts held at

commercial banks, regional rural banks, primary agricultural credit societies, urban cooperative banks

and post offices during this period has risen from454.6 millionto 610.3 million. Still, very few people inthe low-income bracket have access to formal banking channels. Only 34%of people with annual

earnings less than Rs50,000in urban India had a bank account in 2007. The comparative figure in rural

India is even lower, 26.8%.


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Population per Bank Branch (SCBs) ..(In Thousands)

End-March Rural Urban Total

1969 (June) 82 33 63

1981 20 17 19

1991 14 16 14

2001 16 15 16

2007 17 13 16

Source: Report on Currency and Finance 2006-08 (BSR of SCBs)

Number of Savings Accounts .(In Millions)

Institution / End-March 1993 2002 2007

Scheduled Commercial Banks 246 246.5 320.9

Regional Rural Banks 30.5 36.7 52.7

Primary Agricultural Credit

Societies

89 102.1 125.8

Urban Co-operative Banks 41.6 42 50

Post Offices 47.5 60.2 60.8

Total 454.6 487.1 610.3

Total Accounts per 100 Persons 51 46 54

Source: Report on Currency and Finance 2006-08


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Earners Having a Bank Account-2007 (Per cent of Total Earners)

Annual Income (Rs.) Urban Rural Total

< 50,000 34.1 26.8 28.3

50,000100,000 75.5 71.2 73

100,000200,000 91.8 87.4 89.9

200,000400,000 95.5 93.6 94.9

> 400,000 98.0 96.3 97.6

All 61.7 38.0 44.9

Source: Report on Currency and Finance 2006-08 (IIMS, 2007)

Sources of Loans (Per cent of Indebted Earners)

Annual Income Banks Money Lenders

Other Institutional &

Non-Institutional

SourcesTotal

< 50,000 13.0 34.9 52.1 100

50,000100,000 34.5 19.6 45.9 100

100,000200,000 49.3 12.0 38.7 100

200,000400,000 51.6 11.8 36.6 100

> 400,000 62.8 5.5 31.7 100

People having Annual Income less than Rs.50,000 bracket still heavily dependent on moneylenders

Source: Report on Currency and Finance 2006-08 (IIMS Survey, 2007)

Purpose of Loans


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No. of Loan Taking Earners (Millions) Per cent to Loan Taking Earners

Purpose of Loan (All Sources) Rural Urban Rural Urban

Meeting Financial Emergency 20.2 4.7 26.3% 31.0%

Medical Emergency 12.5 1.8 16.3% 11.7%

Business Needs 7.1 2.1 9.3% 14.0%

Others 36.8 6.5 47.1 43.3

Total 76.6 mn 15.1 mn 100% 100%

From Non-Institutional Sources



Business Needs 3.9 1.2 7.5% 12.3%

Others 22.6 3.8 43.0% 38.6%

Total 52.4 mn 9.9 mn 100% 100%


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Source: Report on Currency and Finance 2006-08 (IIMS Survey, 2007)

From Institutional Sources



Business Needs 3.2 0.9 13.0% 17.1%

Others 24.2 5.3 59.3% 52.0%

Total 24.2 mn 5.3 mn 100% 100%


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FINDINGS:

As per the census of 2001 only 27.78% population of the country lives in the urban segment while the

rest are still residing in the inherently characteristic Rural India. The things however have changed

significantly since independence when around 82% of the population lived in the rural segment. Therural segment is distinct in respect of various features such as purchasing power, development, social

system etc. These distinctions relate directly to the kind of distinct demand patterns that the rural sector

has in various product segments especially when it comes to financial services.

Financial inclusion is the biggest problem in front of the financial system today in rural India and

infrastructural bottlenecks are worsening it even further with each passing day. Banking and other

financial services were acknowledged as the ultimate growth drivers in rural India at the time of

independence. The role of the banking sector in financing rural households was envisioned in the 1950s,

in pursuance of the recommendations of the RBI survey, viz. All-India Rural Credit Survey,(AIRCS), which

observed that Agricultural credit fell short of therequirements, was not of the right type, did not serve

the right purpose and often failed to go to the right people.

Despite the insignificant role played by cooperatives in financing rural households at that time, a

proactive role for cooperatives was suggested stating that Cooperation has failed, but

cooperation must succeed. Commercial banks were also inducted in the 1970s into the ambitof

financing agriculture and other priority sectors. Thus both commercial and cooperative banks have been

financing the rural segment holding a major share in institutional finance. However a lot remains to be

achieved. We will thus analyze the role of Micro finance Institutions in providing cheap and prompt

access to financial services in the rural terrain so as to explore a massive untapped segment of the

financial market in India.

Micro financing has emerged as the promising arena to channelize the savings of millions of rural

citizens all over the world to create a sustainable model of growth, development and empowerment.

India is home to the largest population of poor in the world. Microfinance in India has emerged as a

powerful tool for financial inclusion. The `SHGBank Linkage programme plays a predominant role in

the financial inclusion of poor. The programme is coming up well and being implemented widely across

the country. But there is a need to strengthen the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme to fully mainstream it

with the commercial banking system. The programme is scaling up at a rapid pace in South India, while

the progress in other regions is slow. The variations in performance across the regions, both in terms of

reach and quality needs immediate attention.

Lack of knowledge and understanding of services and its attendant policy and processes among the poor

population are important factors that impediment their financial inclusion. In other words, financial

literacy is critical for financial inclusion. The vulnerable situation faced by the poor like irregular

employment, unemployment, seasonality, illiteracy and growing trend of globalization also throw

challenges for financial inclusion of poor. It is clear from the above that access to affordable financial

services by the poor is a serious issue.


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Access to Finance: Major milestones

1969 : Nationalization of Banks

1971 : Establishment of Priority Sector lending norms

1975 :Establishment of Regional Rural Banks

1982 :Establishment of NABARD

1992 :Launching of the SHGBank Linkage

1993 :Establishment of Rashtriya Mahila Kosh

1998 :NABARD sets a goal for linking one million SHGs by 2008

2000 :Establishment of SIDBI Foundation for Microcredit

2005 :MFDEF doubled to Rs 200 crores

2005 :One million SHG linkage target achieved 3 years ahead of date

2006 :Committee on Financial Inclusion

2007 :Proposed bill on microfinance regulation introduced in parliament

2008 : Number of No-Frill Accounts28.23 million

2008 : Number of Kisan Credit cards76 million

2009 : Number of ATMs44,857

2009 : Number of POS4,70,237

2009 : Number of rural bank branches31,727 constituting 39.7% of total bank branches


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Conclusion:

Microfinance is not a panacea to all problems of poverty. However, it is considered as a vital tool to

break the vicious circle of poverty that characterized by low income, low savings and low investment.

In order to generate higher incomes, savings and more investment, there is need to inject capital in theform of microfinance.

The empirical evidence in this study showed that credit plus services of microfinance has positively

correlating with the improving in household expenditure, income, assets and employment.

Microfinance has contributed in improving the access to credit for consumption

Consumption and productive purposes. Most (formal) institutions regarded low-income households as

too poor to save. But microfinance programsnullify the argument and showed that even vulnerable

poor can save if he/she having the accessibility and reward from it (Hulme et al., 1996). Generally, the

life of poor is often hindered by many contingencies or risks. Insuring against these risks makes people

to bear the large uncertain losses with certainty of small and regular payments. Thus, the credit plus

services of microfinance introduced the micro-insurance services to reduce vulnerability (result of risk

and uncertainty) of the poor. The Microfinance has tried to bring out the poor from below poverty line

and fight against the poverty though deploying the financial and non-financial services.

The context for this paper derives from the current overriding emphasis on microfinance in rural finance

discourse and its celebration as the new magic wand in the fight against poverty. The paper also

discusses the factors and theoretical position associated with evolution of microfinance and its global

acclaim based on it being a Win-Win proposition for both Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) and Clients.


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REFERENCE:

www.wikipedia.org Financial inclusion: A new microfinance initiative for APEC By John D Conroy. Presentation in the NAC by M S Sriram. The Microfinance promise in FI and welfare of the poor: Evidence from India By Naveen K.

Shetty

Micro finance and Financial Inclusion By INAFI India. Pushing Financial InclusionIssues, Challenges and Way Forward By Dr. K.C.Chakrabarty.

micro finance - one of the key drivers of financial inclusion by shrawan dwivedi

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