Suicides, debtors’ prisons and delinquent borrowers forced to sell their land—the grim social costs linked to microfinance a decade ago were supposed to be a relic of the past. But efforts to clean up the industry lost momentum, and today billions of dollars are flooding into a system that promises the world’s poor a better life while often compounding their misery.
Government aid agencies, commercial banks, nonprofits and socially minded investment firms are pouring record amounts—more than $50 billion of committed funds in 2020, industry data show—into an international array of lenders. The infusion of capital has continued despite annualized interest rates that can top 100% and aggressive debt-collection tactics that have left some borrowers homeless.
As financiers have replaced philanthropists in the microfinance industry, consumer protection has been weakened. Taxpayer-funded development banks, which could fix the problem, are instead channeling hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for poverty alleviation into some of the most predatory lenders.
In full: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-microfinance-banks-profit-off-developing-world/
