Inter-organisational networks in microfinance: lending partnerships in India, Peru and Tanzania

Marr, Ana and Tubaro, Paola (2010) Inter-organisational networks in microfinance: lending partnerships in India, Peru and Tanzania. In: Cahier de Recherche no. 1 de l'ORIO: Recherches récentes sur les processus sociaux mobilisant l’analyse des réseaux sociaux et organisationnels. Cahier d'ORIO (1). ORIO/Université Paris-Dauphine/IRISSO (Dauphine-CNRS), Paris, France, pp. 170-191.

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Abstract

The paper studies the "wholesale" market through which microfinance institutions operating in three contexts (Peru, Tanzania and the state of Tamil Nadu in India) obtain loans from a variety of domestic and international funding bodies. The nature and characteristics of the relationships between them are captured through network analysis and visualisation tools, with a dataset comprising inter-organisational lending relationships and organisations' attributes in the year 2008. Focus is on the extent to which patterns in wholesale lending relationships relate to the legal status and characteristics of microfinance institutions; to the regulatory, business and social environment in which they operate; and to shifts in the balance between social and commercial interests of diverse types of lenders.
The analysis brings to light considerabel cross-country variation in the structure and features of wholesale lending relationships, and relates it primarily to differences in governance and regulation. On this basis, it makes the case that building a more enabling regulatory environment for funding partnerships may improve the capacity of microfinance to achieve its dual goals of poverty alleviation and financial sustainability.

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