The evaluation of credit risk in microfinance institutions A state of art

Abstract

This paper reviews the empirical research focused on credit risk assessment in microfinance institutions (MFIs), particularly identifying those related to Latin America. Since the pioneering work of Vigano (1993), literature has spread over the last two decades, covering a significant number of countries and with the main objective of assessing credit risk. First, this work focuses on identifying the use of credit scoring techniques in the literature to assess the risk of microcredit incurring some type of costly delay. In this way, the MFI could establish measures to mitigate and be more efficient. The theoretical analysis of these investigations shows the majority use of parametric techniques. However, more recent research finds that non-parametric techniques have a greater predictive power of non-compliance by microcredit clients. Second, this paper identifies the determinants of default risk analyzed in previous works. The evidence shows the importance of qualitative information about the borrower, the business and the loan, as well as the use of unstructured data.