Companies such as 60 Decibels, which provide marketing services to microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the form of research, are in a tricky position as they seek to defend loans made with the aim of poverty reduction in developing countries.
On the one hand, the “research,” which consists of short telephone surveys carried out with customers selected by the MFIs themselves, has to serve the interests of the microfinance industry which pays for it. At the same time, the output also has to retain some kind of credibility. The balancing act involves a strategic retreat from positions that are judged too difficult to defend.
60 Decibels, which describes itself as a “social impact measurement company,” has decided that the explosion of lending in Cambodia’s microfinance industry falls into the indefensible category. This is clear in the company’s Microfinance Index 2024, published in November.
