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> Posted by Alyssa Passarelli and Jeffrey Riecke, the Smart Campaign and CFI

One good deed often leads to another. Whether it’s by learning about new opportunities to do good or by an increase in peer pressure, positive changes are contagious. This also applies to business practices, including how financial institutions treat their clients. Still new on the microfinance scene, the Client Protection Certification program has certified six MFIs to date – three in India and three in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As more institutions become certified, it increasingly changes the expectations for how financial institutions are to serve the poor, especially the expectations in markets where groups of institutions have been certified, like those in India and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Smart Campaign Director Isabelle Barrès recently traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina for an event to publicly congratulate and recognize the country’s three MFIs that were certified earlier this year, EKI, Mi-Bospo, and Partner. Organized by stakeholders in the Bosnian market, in particular the IFC, the event also highlighted the significance of certification, for the institutions and for the market at large. Of the three Bosnian MFIs Isabelle said, “The three client protection certified financial institutions, EKI, Mi-Bospo and Partner, can distinguish themselves in a highly competitive market, as organizations that are meeting adequate standards of customer care. They deserve the spotlight, and the attention from responsible funders and from clients.”

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