Pro Fund

Microfinance has grown rapidly in developing countries over the past 15 years. The earliest microfinance institutions, (MFIs) appeared in Bolivia, Bangladesh and Indonesia during the 1980’s. Today, the number of microfinance institutions worldwide exceeds 10,000. Microfinance is emerging as a pragmatic financial approach to provide financial services to micro-entrepreneurs, small and medium-size firms not able to secure credit in the formal financial system. As profit margins continue to decline, financial institutions are forced to find new ways of providing better customer service while at the same time reducing transactions costs. Recent experiences suggest that the innovative use of existing technologies such as automated teller machines, (ATMs), smart cards and phones, personal digital assistants, (PDAs), mobile technologies, and remote transaction services can significantly improve quality of service and customer satisfaction, increase data collection and analysis, and reduce transactions costs. Economic success is increasingly linked to unconventional new business models with the ability to control and manipulate information. This new economic milieu suggests