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Support for the Smart Campaign will allow client protection assessments, certification testing, pilot projects, and translation and dissemination of tools to foster adherence to Client Protection Principles at leading microfinance institutions.

Washington, DC, January 30, 2012 — The Smart Campaign, a global initiative to incorporate strong client protection principles across the microfinance industry, will receive support from the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group to help Latin American and Caribbean  microfinance institutions  incorporate client protection practices into their operations.

The support will work to institutionalize adherence to the Smart Campaign’s Client Protection Principles, which include  appropriate product design and delivery, prevention of over-indebtedness, transparency, responsible pricing, fair and respectful treatment of clients, privacy of client data, and mechanisms for complaint resolution, in four primary ways:

• Understanding the current state of client protection practice via in-depth Client Protection Assessments of twenty microfinance institutions (MFIs);
• Changing client protection practices via pilot implementation of recommendations from the Smart Assessments;
• Piloting the certification process of ten microfinance institutions as a crucial step to raise client protection standards in the industry; and
• Making Smart Campaign tools more broadly available in Latin America through translation and dissemination of those tools and materials into Spanish and Portuguese.

“Support from the MIF comes at a critical time in the life of the Campaign and will ensure that the experience of microfinance institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean is taken into account when defining adequate standards for client protection worldwide,” said Isabelle Barrès, Smart Campaign Director. Read the rest of this entry »