Economic and ethical issues of microfinance

The 2005 Microfinance year has boosted this topic on the top of the scene. But today, when public attention already has passed to other themes, some conceptual but also operational aspects of microfinance deserve to be better known and understood.

For that reason the Observatoire de la Finance is animating a restricted working group gathering experts but also microfinance operators, in order to think together at the economic and ethical issues of microfinance. In particular, the working group is interested in the cost of microfinance and in its modalities and financing sources, with regard to its social and economic role.

The working group will identify the key problems, both in the knowledge field and in the regulation field that hold microfinance practices. This text will serve as preoperative document for a conference to be held in 2007.