Strong Growth Expected for South, East Asian Markets

January 23, 2012

The social investment company responsAbility is predicting that 2012 will prove a banner year for microfinance, with loan growth reaching 15-20%, globally.

The company expects that South and East Asian markets will experience especially strong growth, ranging between 20% and 30%. But scarce funding due to the European banking crisis will slow growth in Eastern European microfinance markets to a crawl.

"Portfolio quality has seen a second year of improvement in 2011. The share of non-performing loans shrank from 5% to 3%, globally," responsAbility reports. "The share of loans written off has halved [between 2010 and 2011]. This indicates that the effects of recession on microfinance havce been successfully absorbed."

Additionally, the company said it expects local funding, and savings in particular, will take on added importance.

Based in Zurich, responsAbility is a social investment company with more than $1 billion (US) under management. Its investments include microfinance, SME financing, fair trade and independent media.

In 2009, 8% of North American adults were unbanked, compared to 80% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa

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