Scaling Up Microfinance Resource Bank: Additional Resources

The resources for this topic can be found below. To view all of our available Resource Banks, click here.

Relevant training presentations can be found on the Resource Bank’s main page.

I.  Microfinance Landscape and Borrower Experience and Need:

    • 2011 U.S. Microenterprise Census Highlights: FY 2010 Data
      • Author: FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Summary: This report presents the survey responses of reporting microfinance institutions, documents trends in the scale and scope of services provided by organizations reporting in both 2008 and 2010, and also presents a more detailed discussion of the estimates of the overall size of the microfinance field.
    • Key Data on the Scale of Microlending in the U.S. – February 2011
      • Author:FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Summary: This paper uses the data obtained in the FY 2008 U.S. Microenterprise Directory and Census conducted by FIELD to describe the state of microfinance in the United States and to explore the characteristics of large-scale programs, with a view to better understanding the factors that appear associated with their program size.
    • Dollars for Dreams: Scaling Microlending in the United States
      • Author:FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Summary: This document summarizes the experience and lessons of five grantees of the Scale Academy whose primary focus has been on scaling micolending. Representatives of these organizations have engaged in a year-long peer process exchange in their experience and reflecting on the lessons that emerged.
    • The State of Business Development Services
      • Author:FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Summary: This report published in May 2012 examines the scale and scope of the field with respect to business development services and explores the factors that appear to support large-scale programs.
    • Small Business Lending in the United States, 2010-2011
      • Author:Victoria Williams, Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration
      • Summary: This report provides information on depository lending institutions and their lending patterns to small businesses for data years 2006-2011. The study covers small business lenders, including depository institutions such as savings banks, cooperative banks, savings and loan associations, and commercial banks.
    • Kiva and Visa Study of Small Business Trouble Spots: Analysis Based on U.S. County Business Patterns
      • Author: Kiva and Visa
      • Summary: This study published in June 2011 was commissioned to better understand the challenges and opportunities faced by the small business sector to more effectively address key pain points and barriers to scale. The study looked at small business trends from 2006 to 2008 in the 50 largest MSAs, among firms with nine or fewer employees, as well as a further investigation into firms of under four employees.
    • How Should We Serve the Short-Term Credit Needs of Low-Income Consumers?
      • Author: Rachel Schneider and Melissa Koide, CFSI
      • Summary: This paper published in 2010 explores the challenges high-quality, small-dollar, short-term credit products face in order to identify business strategies and public policies that support the development of an efficient marketplace for premium short-term credit.
    • 2011 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households
      • Author: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), lead authors – Susan Burhouse and Yazmin Osaki
      • Summary: This report presents the results of the FDIC’s 2011 Survey, which is used to assess the inclusiveness of the banking system, and to estimate the proportion of households that do not fully participate in the banking system. The FDIC used survey responses to categorize households’ banking status as unbanked, underbanked, or fully banked.
    • 2011 Underbanked Market Sizing Study
      • Author: Core Innovation Capital and CFSI
      • Summary: In 2012, CFSI and Core Innovation Capital released new data about the size of the underbanked market. This report highlights opportunities for institutions that seek to provide high quality, affordable financial products and services to this market.
    • Safe Small-Dollar Loans Research Project
      • Author: The Pew Charitable Trusts, Pew Center on the States
      • Summary: The Safe Small-Dollar Loans Research Project focuses on small-dollar credit products such as payday and automobile title loans, as well as emerging alternatives. The project works to find safe and transparent solutions to meet consumers’ immediate financial needs.
    • Payday Lending in America: Who Borrows, Where They Borrow, and Why
      • Author: The Pew Charitable Trusts, Safe Small-Dollar Loans Research Project
      • Summary: This report’s findings provide policy makers with research to address concerns about small dollar loans and to promote a safe and transparent marketplace. In addition to discussing Pew’s focus groups, the report presents selected results from a first-ever nationally representative telephone survey of payday borrowers.
    • Unbanked by Choice: A look at how low-income Los Angeles households manage the money they earn
      • Author: Pew Health Group
      • Summary: This is the first report from a multi-phase survey of 1,000 banked and 1,000 unbanked households in greater Los Angeles, randomly selected from eight low-income study areas for in-person interviews at several intervals over the course of one year. The study looked at the financial behaviors of similarly situated unbanked and banked low-income families to inform policy solutions that would bring more Americans into the financial mainstream. The findings from the first phase of this study suggest several policy directions for further investigation to help unbanked families shift to the safer world of the banked.
    • The New Microfinance Handbook: A Financial Market System Perspective (2013)
      • Edited by: Joanna Ledgerwood with Julie Earne and Candace Nelson (The World Bank)
      • Summary: This extensive handbook provides a strategic guide for offering financial services to the poor, particularly focusing on international microfinance. It is divided into five sections: 1) understanding demand and the financial ecosystem, 2) financial service providers, 3) financial services and delivery channels, 4) institution management for scale and sustainability, and 5) supporting financial inclusion.
    • Microenterprise Development as Job Creation (2013)
      • Author: Elaine L. Edgcomb and Tamra Thetford, FIELD at The Aspen Institute
      • Summary: There has been much discussion of the potential microenterprise has as a driver of job creation. This study, using data collected from over 1,000 microentrepreneurs, demonstrates that these businesses produce jobs for their owners and others, many of whom are disadvantaged in the labor market. Also, it examines the benefits of investing in microenterprise assistance.
    • Microenterprise and the Small-Dollar Loan Market
      • Author: Tammie Hoy, Jessie Romero, and Kimberly Zeuli (The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond)
      • Summary: This report provides a summary of the microenterprise and small dollar loan market. It discusses the nature of these loans, the funding sources for organizations providing these loans, and challenges to the sector.
    • Recommended Additional Reading:
      • Barr, Michael S. (2012). No Slack: The Financial Lives of Low-Income Americans. Using The Detroit Area Household Financial Services study, Barr explores the financial decision-making processes, behaviors, and attitudes related to financial transactions of low- and moderate-income families. He finds that traditional financial services do not allow these individuals the financial ‘slack’ or breathing room needed to make adjustments that would allow them to better meet their financial needs. The Table of Contents and a sample chapter are available on the Brookings Institution’s website.

II.  Innovative Business Models:

    • Partnerships for Community Impact: Higher Education and CDFIs Working Together
      • Author: Jessie Ball duPont Fund and Opportunity Finance Network
      • Summary: Collaborations between CDFIs and institutions of higher education can be a creative way to increase scale and community impact. This publication highlights five examples of higher education-CDFI partnership, involving projects in Philadelphia (TRF and LaSalle University), Chicago (IFF and University of Chicago), Durham, N.C. (Self-Help and Duke University); New Orleans (Hope and Delgado Community College) and multiple communities in North Carolina (LCCU and University of Virginia).
    • Business Model Canvas: Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model.
    • A Newly Crowded Marketplace: How For-profit Lenders Are Serving Microentrepreneurs
      • Author: FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Summary: In this white paper published in March 2011, FIELD at the Aspen Institute looks at a trend of for-profit organizations working in the retail financial services arena by offering microloans to microbusinesses and consumers alike —positioning themselves differently from traditional financial institutions and alternative financial (retail) providers, such as check cashing outlets or personal finance companies.
    • The Organizational Foundations of Sustainability: FIELD forum Issue 23 (2009)
      • Author: FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Summary: This FIELD forum takes a look at the organizational foundations of sustainability, and profiles an institution that has thoughtfully and systematically built a corporate culture and capacity that supports security, quality and growth. This case study focuses on ACCION New Mexico•Arizona•Colorado.
    • Recommended Additional Reading:
      • Langdon Morris and Hartmut Esslinger. (2011). Permanent Innovation, Revised Edition: Proven Strategies and Methods of Successful Innovators.
      • Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pignuer. (2010). Business Model Generation. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

III.  New Products and Services:

Credit Building:

    • Knowledge Brief: Credit Cards -
      • Author: Kate Marshall and Rachel Schneider, CFSI
      • Summary: This Knowledge Brief provides an overview of the types of small dollar loan products that are currently available. It presents results from the CFSI Industry Scan including application requirements, time from application to approval, and other product details.
    • Building Consumer Credit: A Winning Strategy for Financial Institutions and Consumers
      • Author: Kate Dole and Rob Levy, CFSI
      • Summary: This paper from June 2012 suggests a number of initiatives that banks and credit unions can undertake to help build the credit profiles of low and moderate income consumers. This includes initiatives that can be implemented in the short-term, medium-term, and longer-term, with the short-term solutions being the least labor and cost-intensive, and the longer-term solutions requiring a more significant effort on the part of individual financial institutions as well as more systemic, industry-wide change.
    • Secure Future for Secured Cards
      • Author: CFSI
      • Summary: In this December 2010 publication CFSI highlights a number of key findings about secured cards from consumer research conducted among three consumer segments relating to their needs, preferences, behaviors, and perceptions for secured credit card products.
    • Asset Building Through Credit Pilot Program
      • Organization: FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Description: This link provides information regarding FIELD’s Credit Pilot Program which looks at whether a secured credit card teamed with education could help entrepreneurs to build their credit and business.

Savings Products:

    • Saving for Microenterprise Development
      • Author: FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Summary: This Funder Guide published in June 2008 summarizes why Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) work for microentrepreneurs and what has been learned about the accomplishments and challenges of IDA programs.
    • Knowledge Brief: Deposit Accounts
      • Author: Kate Marshall and Rachel Schneider, CFSI
      • Summary: This Knowledge Brief outlines the key features of savings and checking accounts offered to unbanked and underbanked consumers. It also provides data regarding perceptions of top factors influencing consumers’ choices.
    • Building Better Savings Products
      • Author: The New America Foundation
      • Summary: This video from the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation features several experts who are piloting innovative savings products and models that are targeted to low-income consumers. Additional materials from the event are also available on this webpage.
    • FDIC Model Safe Accounts Pilot: Final Report
      • Author: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
      • Summary: This paper (April 2012) outlines the FDICs Model Safe Accounts one-year pilot program. This program was conducted in conjunction with nine financial institutions to determine the feasibility of offering safe, low-cost transaction and basic savings accounts to help meet the needs of underserved and low- and moderate-income consumers.
    • Save USA – Program Implementation: Insights from the Field(2012)
      • Author: Published by The City of New York
      • Summary: This report provides insights from the SaveUSA program that took place in four cities across the nation, including The City of New York. This program allowed eligible tax filers at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites to open a SaveUSA account and receive a 50% match, up to $500, on the initial tax deposit if they leave the funds untouched for about a year. Early program results were promising and this document outlines how the program was implemented and the lessons learned from this experience.
    • Individual, Institutional, and Structural Determinants of Household Savings Decisions(Working Paper: April 2012)
      • Authors: Kea Turner and Kim Manturuk, Center for Community Capital, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
      • Summary/Abstract: Policy-makers and practitioners have recently focused on matched-savings account programs as a way to build assets and financial capacity among low-income households. This article examines the experiences of low-income participants in $ave NYC, a matched-savings account program designed to capitalize on the tax refund. The research examines how individual, institutional, and structural determinants impact the decision-making processes that guide participants’ savings behavior. Results show that individual factors such as obligation to family, upbringing, and employment experiences affect participants’ attitudes toward savings and their confidence in their ability to save. Institutional factors such as incentives, disincentives, and organizational culture shape participants’ trust in financial institutions and their attitudes towards participating in savings programs. Finally, structural factors such as employment loss, financial strain, and the economy, impact participants’ perceived financial control, and ultimately their savings behavior.

Prepaid Cards:

    • Knowledge Brief: Prepaid Cards
      • Author: Kate Marshall and Rachel Schneider, CFSI
      • Summary: This Knowledge Brief outlines the uses of prepaid cards currently being used to serve the underbanked market. The brief also provides key takeaways about the use of prepaid cards and the fees that are charged for various activities.
    • Consumers’ Use of Prepaid Cards: A Transaction-Based Analysis
      • Author: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and CFSI
      • Summary: This report looks at detailed statistics on the longevity of prepaid cards and the intensity of their use, including the frequency and value of spending, the composition of spending at merchants, ATM withdrawals, and reloading of value onto cards.
    • Promoting Safety and Transparency in Prepaid
      • Author: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
      • Summary: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is taking steps to protect consumers in the prepaid market by launching a rulemaking process aimed at promoting safety and transparency. This brochure provides an overview of the prepaid landscape.
    • Federal Regulation of the Prepaid Card Industry: Costs, Benefits, and Changing Industry Dynamics
      • Author: Philip Keitel, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
      • Summary: This paper summarizes the highlights from the presentations given at a conference (April 2010) hosted by the FRB of Philadelphia. The conference examined ways in which prepaid card products can differ, how the industry has developed over time, ongoing industry dynamics, ways in which the usefulness of prepaid products to criminals might be limited, whether consumers who use prepaid cards are adequately protected, and the challenges facing regulators.
    • Case Study: National Community Tax Coalition (NCTC)
      • Author: CFSI’s Financial Capability Institute
      • Summary: This case study highlights the key lessons learned from a partnership between the National Community Tax Coalition and NetSpend to pilot a prepaid product at tax time. NetSpend emerged as the provider that best met NCTC’s criteria—one that offered a high-quality product and was truly committed to this effort.

Mobile Payments and Technologies:

    • Mobile Payments in the United States: Mapping Out the Road Ahead
      • Author: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and BetterBuyDesign
      • Summary: The paper (March 2011) depicts the current mobile payments ecosystem in the U.S.; discusses barriers, gaps, and opportunities; and sets forth a set of foundational elements that workgroup participants believe are fundamental to the development of a robust mobile payments environment.

IV.  Technology Solutions:

    • Social Media Bootcamp
      • Authors: Stefanie Arck, OFN; Galen Gondolfi, Justine Petersen; Alanna Smith, Clearinghouse; Charity Sack, NCB Capital Impact
      • Summary: Session materials from the OFN conference session, Social Media Bootcamp, which explains the different social media forums and how to effectively use them to market your organization.
    • Your CDFI in the Cloud
      • Authors: Anne Geggie, NCB Capital Impact; Pradip Sitaram, Enterprise Business; Guy Baldwin, Northern California Community Loan Fund
      • Summary: Session materials from the OFN conference session, Your CDFI in the Cloud, outlines some of the positives and challenges related to using cloud-based technologies such as Salesforce, and presents a few case studies of CDFIs that use such technology
    • Data that Works
      • Author: Tamra Thetford, FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Summary: This guide, published in 2011, serves as a way to help microenterprise organizations think through the key pieces involved in collecting, storing and using your data.
    • Using Technology to Advance Microenterprise Development
      • Author: FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Summary: This publication (2003) focuses more on microenterprise development services than lending services, but provides a useful framework for selecting and planning technology to support business objectives and offers insights into how programs can assist microentrepreneurs with business automation, on-line learning and web-based marketing.
    • Kiva City Program- Kiva City extends microfinance to small businesses across America. With Kiva City, credit unions or other financial institutions partner at a local level to facilitate the loans, while community groups and civic leaders build awareness among small business owners and refer them to the program. Kiva City works with CDFIs such as ASI Federal Credit Union (New Orleans), Latino Economic Development Center (Washington DC), and Valley Economic Development Center (Los Angeles).
    • ACCION Texas Inc.’s Microloan Management System (MMS)- MMS™ is an automated scoring tool that rates borrower risk based on ACCION Texas Inc.’s data on borrower and repayment profiles. The system has vastly improved their operational efficiency, portfolio quality and size, number of borrowers, underwriting efficiency and turnaround time.
    • Innovation Guide: ACCION Texas
      • Author: Opportunity Finance Network
      • Summary: This paper (2008) looks at ACCION Texas’ innovative integrated application and loan management system that they’re not only using to manage their own lending, but are also successfully marketing to other microenterprise, creating a whole new business line.
    • Credit Scoring for Microenterprise Lenders
      • Author: ACCION New Mexico, ACCION USA, and FIELD at the Aspen Institute
      • Summary: The purpose of this paper (2007) is to share the experiences and results of the work of Accion New Mexico and Accion USA in order to help other microlenders understand how they might being to develop and use credit scoring within their lending programs
    • Credit Builders Alliance
      • Credit Builders Alliance is a nonprofit organization creating innovative solutions to help non-traditional financial and asset building institutions serving low and moderate income individuals build client credit and financial access in order to grow their businesses and/or personal assets.
    • Loan Monitoring Software
      • Author: Tamela Hudson, Coastal Enterprises, Inc.; Roberto Barragan, VEDC
      • Summary: Session materials from OFN conference session, Loan Monitoring Software, which presented considerations for choosing loan monitoring software through the case studies of Coastal Enterprise, Inc.’s use of Harland Sparak and VEDC’s use of TEA.
    • “Credit Union Deploys ‘Bank in a Box’ for the Underbanked”– June 15, 2012, American Banker - Read about how Centris FCU is using kiosks at branches and grocery stores in hopes that the machines, which combine several financial services into a single interface will be attractive to people who have to go to several places or use different processes to do things like pay their rent or cash their paychecks.
    • Financial Technology Trends in the Underbanked Market (May 2013)
      • Author: Rob Levy, Arjan Schütte, Eva Wolkowitz (CFSI and Core Innovation Capital)
      • Summary: This report examines four key trends in emerging financial technologies impacting the underbanked marketplace today and highlights companies capitalizing on these trends to improve consumer financial health. The trends include: harnessing social networks, solving the cash in/out problem, leveraging big data for better risk management, and scaling up by going B2B2C.

V.  Talent Management:

    • Employee Life Cycle Assessment Tool:
      • Author: Dr. Monica McGrath, Resources for Leadership, Inc.
      • Use this worksheet to analyze your organization on each phase of the employee life cycle. By filling out this worksheet you can determine how effective your CDFI is in this phase now and how an increase in scale might impact this phase.
    • Leadership/Founder Legacy
      • Author: Dr. Monica McGrath, Resources for Leadership, Inc.
      • Use this worksheet to define your leadership legacy and to periodically gain feedback from trusted supporters to recalibrate your definition or related actions as necessary.
    • CDFIs v2.0: The Vision of a New Generation
      • Organization: Opportunity Finance Network
      • Summary: CDFIs v2.0 was created to harness the ideas and energy of young, emerging leaders in the community development finance industry to better serve low-income and low-wealth communities.
    • Mind Tools- Mind Tools is an online resource that teaches practical skills that aim to help individuals become more effective and successful in their career.
    • Recommended Additional Reading:
      • Grant, A. (June 2011). How Customers Can Rally Your Troops. Harvard Business Review, pp. 96-103.
      • Barsade, S., & D. E. Gibson. (2007). Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations? Academy of Management Perspectives, pp. 36-59.