Microfinance Banks and Financial Inclusion *

Financial Inclusion and Microfinance in India: An Overview

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of micro finance in the empowerment of people and the realisation of financial inclusion in India. While there are reservations about the efficacy of MFIs in handling public money, their growth and achievements demand attention and appreciation. Today the MFIs want the government to empower them for mobilising savings. With increasing demand for ...

Microfinance and Financial Development

Performance Analysis of Banks and Microfinance Institutions in India

Present paper intends to measure the determinants of performance of Indian financial sector. The performance variables of banking sector and microfinance institutions in India are studied over a study period of six years i.e. 2006-07 to 2011-12. The financial sector of India is gaining strength over the years and its contribution to growth is overwhelming. Banks are considered the main componen...

Financial Sanctions and Iranian Banks’ Performance

In this study, we use Stochastic Frontier analysis approach to estimate cost efficiency, economies of scale, and technological progress among Iranian banks from 1999 to 2012. The results show that there is a marked difference in cost efficiency before and after the recent financial sanctions against Iranian banking industry. Moreover, the results indicate that specialized government-owned banks...

Cooperative Banks and Financial Stability

Cooperative banks are an important, and growing, part of many financial systems. The paper analyzes empirically the role of cooperative banks in financial stability. Contrary to some suggestions in the literature, we find that cooperative banks are more stable than commercial banks. This finding is due to much lower volatility of the cooperative banks’ returns, which more than offsets their low...