Microfinance Information Exchange
Encyclopedia
Microfinance Information Exchange, Inc. (commonly known by its acronym MIX) is a non-profit organization
that acts as a business information provider in the microfinance
sector. Founded by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CGAP, Citi Foundation
, Deutsche Bank Foundation
, IFAD, and Omidyar Network
, MIX is headquartered in Washington DC, and has regional offices in Peru
, Morocco
, and India
.
and social performance data
from microfinance institutions (MFIs) in addition to business information from networks
and service providers, and funders
and investors. This data is then standardized and provided to the public through MIX Market and a variety of publications like the MicroBanking Bulletin, and reports and analysis on regional and country level microfinance sectors. In providing objective data and analysis on microfinance providers, MIX hopes to promote financial transparency
in the industry, build the information infrastructure in developing countries, and offer those involved in microfinance (practitioners, funders, policy makers, academia) a way to gain a better understanding of MFI operations, challenges, and performance trends.
MIX Market Statistics – As of July 20, 2010, 1,834 MFIs were reporting data to MIX. Those MFIs total $43.8 billion USD in gross loan portfolio, $23.7 billion USD in deposits, 81.4 million borrowers, and 593.1 in average loan balance per borrower.
Data Collection and Analysis - After receiving self-reported data from MFIs, MIX analysts “review the data, ensuring there are no outliers and extremes. [They] double check against source documents such as audits and ratings, and standardize [the data] according to internationally accepted accounting standards and to provide for a more useful intra-regional comparison.”
Data Products - The main data products of the MIX Market include MFI Profiles (including Financial Indicators
, Trends, and Benchmarks), Country-level and Regional profiles, Funding Structure Data, and Social Performance Reports.
MIX Market Profiles – Alongside their widely acknowledged data provision, MIX Market creates a forum for the dissemination of business information via profiles for individual actors within microfinance sectors around the world. MFIs, funders (public and private funds that invest in microfinance), MFI networks, and microfinance service providers (academic institutions, fund managers, development programs, peer-to-peer lenders, private corporations, raters/external evaluators, advisory firms, and governmental and regulatory agencies) can create and update these profiles with their most recent business information (including company overview, website and other contact information, and products) as well as financial and operational data and documentation.
Regional Analysis, Benchmarking, and Trend Reports are published yearly after the end of the data collection and provide industry analysis including updates on broad economic, legal, and performance developments. These reports include regional benchmarks for financial and operational indicators for the upcoming year and provide a means by which to continually evaluate MFI performance.
Data briefs draw on MIX Market datasets to provide empirical and theoretical analysis on broader topics within the microfinance industry.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
that acts as a business information provider in the microfinance
Microfinance
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
sector. Founded by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CGAP, Citi Foundation
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...
, Deutsche Bank Foundation
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
, IFAD, and Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network is a philanthrocapitalist investment firm established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $290 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual...
, MIX is headquartered in Washington DC, and has regional offices in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Business Information Provider
MIX collects and validates financialFINANCIAL
FINANCIAL is the weekly English-language newspaper with offices in Tbilisi, Georgia and Kiev, Ukraine. Published by Intelligence Group LLC, FINANCIAL is focused on opinion leaders and top business decision-makers; It's about world’s largest companies, investing, careers, and small business. It is...
and social performance data
Data
The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...
from microfinance institutions (MFIs) in addition to business information from networks
Business networking
Business networking is a socioeconomic activity by which groups of like-minded businesspeople recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities. A business network is a type of social network whose reason for existing is business activity...
and service providers, and funders
Funding
Funding is the act of providing resources, usually in form of money , or other values such as effort or time , for a project, a person, a business or any other private or public institutions...
and investors. This data is then standardized and provided to the public through MIX Market and a variety of publications like the MicroBanking Bulletin, and reports and analysis on regional and country level microfinance sectors. In providing objective data and analysis on microfinance providers, MIX hopes to promote financial transparency
Transparency (market)
In economics, a market is transparent if much is known by many about:* What products, services or capital assets are available.* What price.* Where....
in the industry, build the information infrastructure in developing countries, and offer those involved in microfinance (practitioners, funders, policy makers, academia) a way to gain a better understanding of MFI operations, challenges, and performance trends.
MIX Market
MIX Market is MIX’s platform for delivering microfinance information. Described as the “microfinance information clearinghouse,” MIX Market provides online data on over 1800 microfinance institutions (MFIs) and 100 investors.MIX Market Statistics – As of July 20, 2010, 1,834 MFIs were reporting data to MIX. Those MFIs total $43.8 billion USD in gross loan portfolio, $23.7 billion USD in deposits, 81.4 million borrowers, and 593.1 in average loan balance per borrower.
Data Collection and Analysis - After receiving self-reported data from MFIs, MIX analysts “review the data, ensuring there are no outliers and extremes. [They] double check against source documents such as audits and ratings, and standardize [the data] according to internationally accepted accounting standards and to provide for a more useful intra-regional comparison.”
Data Products - The main data products of the MIX Market include MFI Profiles (including Financial Indicators
Economic indicator
An economic indicator is a statistic about the economy. Economic indicators allow analysis of economic performance and predictions of future performance. One application of economic indicators is the study of business cycles....
, Trends, and Benchmarks), Country-level and Regional profiles, Funding Structure Data, and Social Performance Reports.
- MFI profiles – The most basic medium through which data can be accessed on MIX Market is through individual MIX Market MFI profiles which provide financial, operational, and social performance data as well as relevant documents, such as audits. With this data, users can view and compare performance data of several MFIs (by countries, indicators, and trends), create customizable performance and trend reports, and create benchmarks to view aggregated data in median values.
- Country-level and Regional Profiles – These options permit a wider perspective on MFI performance data, allowing users to view information on a country-level scale or a regional scale. MIX Market currently has country profiles for 115 countries divided into six regions: AfricaAfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
or Sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
(SSA), Latin AmericaLatin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and The CaribbeanCaribbeanThe Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
(LAC), East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Eastern EuropeEastern EuropeEastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and Central AsiaCentral AsiaCentral Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
(EECA), and South AsiaSouth AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
(SA). - Funding Structure Data – Launched in June 2010, MIX Market’s Funding Structure Data provides information on debtDebtA debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
financing sources for microfinance institutions. The Funding Structure Data cover over 15 billion USD of outstanding debt, ranging from local to foreign, public and private funding sources, and covering 86 countries and 890 MFIs, representing over 90% of all borrowers. The database allows users to aggregate data by country, funder type, and other variables. - Social Performance Reports – MIX Market offers Social Performance Reports for those MFIs who elect to report on 22 social performance indicators, which “assess how an MFI aligns its systems to its mission and how it uses social performance information to reach its social goals.” Social Performance Reporting has become a salient topic in the industry, with MFIs being increasingly held accountable both for financial and social performance. The issue has received growing attention as the social impact of microcredit has become widely debated in development circles. Additionally, MIX manages the Social Performance Task Force (SPTF)-sponsored Social Performance Indicators Blog, which a medium for learning and exchange on topics related to social performance in microfinance.
MIX Market Profiles – Alongside their widely acknowledged data provision, MIX Market creates a forum for the dissemination of business information via profiles for individual actors within microfinance sectors around the world. MFIs, funders (public and private funds that invest in microfinance), MFI networks, and microfinance service providers (academic institutions, fund managers, development programs, peer-to-peer lenders, private corporations, raters/external evaluators, advisory firms, and governmental and regulatory agencies) can create and update these profiles with their most recent business information (including company overview, website and other contact information, and products) as well as financial and operational data and documentation.
Publications
The semiannual MicroBanking Bulletin publishes financial and portfolio data provided voluntarily by MFIs and organized by peer groups. It includes peer reviewed articles from microfinance practitioners and academics on topics related to transparency and benchmarking.Regional Analysis, Benchmarking, and Trend Reports are published yearly after the end of the data collection and provide industry analysis including updates on broad economic, legal, and performance developments. These reports include regional benchmarks for financial and operational indicators for the upcoming year and provide a means by which to continually evaluate MFI performance.
Data briefs draw on MIX Market datasets to provide empirical and theoretical analysis on broader topics within the microfinance industry.
See also
- MicrofinanceMicrofinanceMicrofinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
- MicrocreditMicrocreditMicrocredit is the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit...
- MicroinsuranceMicroinsuranceMicroinsurance is a term increasingly used to refer to insurance characterized by low premium and low caps or low coverage limits, sold as part of atypical risk-pooling and marketing arrangements, and designed to service low-income people and businesses not served by typical social or commercial...
- BankBankA bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
- Credit unionCredit unionA credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates, and providing other financial services to its members...
- Savings bankSavings bankA savings bank is a financial institution whose primary purpose is accepting savings deposits. It may also perform some other functions.In Europe, savings banks originated in the 19th or sometimes even the 18th century. Their original objective was to provide easily accessible savings products to...