Southeast Asia's Credit Revolution: From Moneylenders to Microfinance

ISBN-13: 9780415443685 / Angielski / Twarda / 2009 / 220 str.

Aditya Goenka;David Henley

Opis

Southeast Asia's Credit Revolution describes and explains the rise of microfinance - the provision of credit and other financial services for the poor - in Southeast Asia, over the past four decades the most consistently successful region of the developing world. In recent years microfinance has come to be seen as a key weapon in the battle against global poverty, generating more enthusiasm and optimism than any other development strategy. Southeast Asia has a special place in the history of microfinance. Historically, Southeast Asian societies and economies were perceived as almost uniquely debt-ridden and credit-constrained. In the twentieth century, however, the region was in the forefront of the modern microfinance revolution. This book asks what factors have made it possible for formal microfinance institutions to replace moneylenders and other traditional credit providers. Bringing together economists, sociologists, anthropologists and historians, the book covers seven Southeast Asian countries. The topic is explored from cultural and institutional as well as economic perspectives, and policy-relevant lessons are offered for the design of successful microfinance institutions. Focusing on recent developments while putting them in historical context, this will be an important text for scholars and students of economic history, finance, institutional economics, and Asian Studies.

The last twenty years have seen a transformation in the availability and use of credit among the less prosperous - though perhaps not the least prosperous - strata of Southeast Asian societies. Historically Southeast Asia was seen as afflicted by a complex of debt-related problems: high levels of indebtedness; lack of savings; general scarcity of cash; high interest rates; widespread debt-bondage due to the great demand for credit and the high interest rates; and a need for advance payments in order to initiate commercial transactions. Colonial and early post-colonial governments had only limited success in displacing private moneylenders and other informal credit providers. In the 20^th century, the formal financial sector began to reach small borrowers on an unprecedented scale. In the international league table of microfinance penetration rates, as measured by the number of borrowing clients as a percentage of the total population, four of the top six countries in the world are located in Southeast Asia. Today credit is available to ordinary Southeast Asians at lower cost than ever before, and at the same time bank accounts are fast replacing gold, livestock and gift-exchange as forms of saving even in remote areas.

This book, written by experts in relevant fields, deals with the modern or formal part of the microfinance sector. Contributions also look at informal moneylending, rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), cooperatives, pawnshops, shopkeeper credit, advance crop payments from traders before the harvest, and other traditional types of lending.

Of interest to an interdisciplinary readership, this book presents an analysis of microfinance-related issues in a variety of Southeast Asian settings.

Spis treści

1. Introduction: from moneylenders to microfinance in Southeast Asia Aditya Goenka and David Henley  2. Rural credit market imperfections and the role of microfinance Aditya Goenka  3. Old and new worlds of microfinance in Europe and Asia Hans-Dieter Seibel  4. Credit provision among Vietnamese small businesses Stephen J. Appold and Nguyen Quy Thanh  5. Pawnshops in Singapore: traditional microfinance in a modern society Selina Ching Chan and David T. Owyong  6. The Indonesian People's Credit Banks (BPR) Dirk Steinwand  7. Breaking down the barriers to microfinance: the Philippine case Benjamin R. Quiñones, Jr.  8. Economic theory meets evidence in rural Thailand: lessons for group lending Christian R. Ahlin  9. The effects of microcredit on the Orang Asli of Malaysia Angeline L. Ames and Todd T. Ames  10. Farmers in debt: the case of rainfed upland farmers in Northeast Thailand Sharon B. Singzon and Ganesh P. Shivakoti  11. Microfinance in Indonesia: evolution and revolution, 1900-2000 David Henley  12. Microfinance in Burma Sean Turnell