Microfinance meeting the needs of poor consumers : a marketing myth?

We examine the weak foundations that form the basis of many assumptions being made about the poor and their money management (Ruthven, 2002).We examine the financial interfaces of the rural poor in an emerging Asian market and challenge the widely held view that microfinance is meeting the needs of a substantial number of poor consumers and contributing directly to poverty alleviation. Observation of the financial practices of the rural poor in Bangladesh suggests that microfinance is not increasing productivity or contributing to the creation of new entrepreneurial income producing activities for this group. An approach is proposed to enable closer examination of potential financial product alternatives that may serve this market more effectively