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> Posted by Elisabeth Rhyne

Elisabeth Rhyne

The idea for the Center for Financial Inclusion emerged within ACCION about a year ago. As you probably know, ACCION has been promoting the commercial model of microfinance ever since it created BancoSol in 1992. You might know that back then Maria Otero and I worked together to lay out a vision – we called it the Financial Systems Approach – for how microfinance could become part of the mainstream financial system. That vision has far exceeded our dreams.

Last year, the Compartamos IPO felt like a culmination of the vision in many ways. It was a strong validation of microfinance by the international markets. It was also a wake-up call on some of the thorny issues facing the field. The momentum is strong now for commercial microfinance. The financial crisis of the past week may interrupt that momentum, but microfinance is sound, and as markets recover they will stay with it. In the new environment we saw a need to take up a renewed focus: ensuring that the mission side remains an integral part of microfinance, even as the baton passes to more private sector players.

We hired Community Wealth Ventures, a consulting firm that assists nonprofit leaders to launch strategic ventures, helped us develop our thoughts about the Center and put them down on paper. Their enthusiasm and advice got us started, and we thank them heartily.

The Center’s mission statement involves a lot of my personal convictions:

The Center for Financial Inclusion is dedicated to the proposition that low income people deserve high quality financial services delivered through commercial models that incorporate social purpose.

The first few words are about financial inclusion. It is no longer just microloans for microenterprises, provided by specialized microfinance institutions. We crossed that bridge some time ago, but still have trouble getting beyond those roots.

More important, microfinance has focused so much on client numbers that quality has not received its due. What I mean by quality is that customers receive a full range of services, delivered in a responsible and customer-friendly way, at an affordable price.

The second part of the mission refers to commercial providers incorporating social purpose. The Center welcomes anyone who pursues a double bottom line, be they non-profits or banks. I feel despair about the way greed was allowed to run rampant in the U.S. financial sector, and I believe we are lost if we don’t incorporate social purpose more explicitly into business. Inclusive finance has great potential to demonstrate how this can be done.

For these reasons, consumer protection is emerging as the first major new area for the Center. We are working across the industry to launch an awareness raising campaign for consumer protection in microfinance. Stay tuned for more.

Which brings up the collaborative working model of the Center. For solving industry-wide challenges nothing is better than assembling small groups of people around burning issues. That’s how we intend to work. Some groups are at it already, including a terrific Advisory Council. And we have an energetic staff who are creating an atmosphere of fun and provocation, making the Center a place where ideas can be put forward and challenged.

Before we started we wondered whether people would trust the Center as working on behalf of the industry at large, without a separate ACCION agenda. I’ve been delighted at the warm reception the Center has received so far. If you have lingering doubts about independence of the Center, I ask you to give us a chance to prove ourselves, and then hold us to our word.

Creating the Center is a homecoming of sorts for me. I’ve always thought in terms of the industry as a whole. Thanks to ACCION for giving me this opportunity. The Center certainly shares ACCION’s philosophy regarding commercial microfinance, and it will benefit greatly from ACCION’s support.  But the intent is to serve industry as a whole, working with all players – inclusively.

> Posted by Brian Clancy

Center program director Deborah Drake with Advisory Council members Philip Brown and Brian Clancy

I’m delighted to welcome you to the Center for Financial Inclusion. The global microfinance movement is at a critical juncture in its evolution, and this initiative is an acknowledgment of both the opportunities and risks the current situation presents. The Center reflects an enhanced commitment to building coalitions to ensure our industry balances economic sustainability and social mission as it reaches scale.

We are pursuing this objective in several distinct ways. First, we have created two advisory groups to provide us with insights, direction and program support. I’m proud to join the Center as a member of its Advisory Council, where I am working with a distinguished group of major thought leaders in microfinance plus world-class talent from other disciplines who will play a major role in the industry’s development. We reached out to a truly remarkable group of people and were delighted and honored that they were willing to support this effort. Our Faculty Council is an equally distinguished group, made up of individuals who teach and pursue research in the field at top academic institutions.

Both of these groups are acutely aware that what got microfinance this far is not enough to move us to universal financial-services access for the world’s poor, and they are dedicated to working together to forge a path to that vital goal.

The Center for Financial Inclusion also includes a separate unit to support these efforts. This team includes project managers to address our first three focus areas: managing the double bottom line, opening capital markets to microfinance, and addressing service-delivery bottlenecks.

I want to thank everyone both inside and outside the Center and ACCION who have made this launch possible, and I am particularly excited about sharing with you our plans and deliverables as this important initiative gains momentum over the months and years to come

> Posted by Sofia Leon

Welcome to the Inclusive Finance Forum, the blog for the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International. In this first post we’ll explain who we are and what we’ll be blogging about.The Center for Financial Inclusion is working with microfinance experts and leaders from the private sector to advance the commercial model of microfinance, while upholding the interests and needs of poor clients worldwide. My name is Sofía León and I will be co-editor of this blog together with my colleague Kelley Mesa. My passion for poverty eradication and social enterprise makes me enthusiastic to raise key issues through this blog.

You’ll be hearing from the entire staff of the Center. Members of our Advisory and Faculty Councils will also make guest appearances. Fellows for the Center’s Energy Links and Beyond Codes projects will also join the discussion, together with other leading experts working in microfinance.

What will we blog about? We’ll cover the issues that are shaping the future of financial services for the poor, like fair pricing, competition, climate change, reckless lending, new financial products, corporate governance, and housing microfinance….just to name a few. We hope to provoke debate and fresh thinking.

Whoever you are, whatever role you play – at a development organization, in the private sector, as a student, or as a microfinance expert – your contribution to this site is welcome. Send us your comments, your ideas for posts, your interests, and your ideas for innovative projects you think should be highlighted.  (We will have comments enabled below each blog post as soon as possible. Until then, please e-mail us at with your thoughts!).