Product Review

The New Microfinance Handbook takes a market systems approach to financial inclusion, oriented by client needs. Framing the book with the client as the central element recognizes the emerging awareness that financial needs of the poor are many and are provided by multiple market players beyond the scope of any single institutional form. The book explores the fundamentals of this expanded view through examining client needs (demand), products and providers (supply), and the support systems required to increase financial access to the poor with a focus on operational support, rules and regulations, infrastructure and delivery channels, information, and funding.

The objective of the New Microfinance Handbook is to provide a strategic guide to help assess the financial service needs of the poor and to determine how a diversified financial sector can address these needs. The New Microfinance Handbook takes a different approach from the original Microfinance Handbook. Rather than write from the “institutional" perspective (supply driven), this time we consider first and foremost the clients and their needs (demand side) and how the market can better meet their needs. The result is a book which is less of a “how-to" guide but rather a description of financial markets and how they work, or do not work, in serving the needs of the poor―and what is needed to improve the market. The book aims to facilitate access to and usage of financial products and services that genuinely meet the many needs of the poor through various sustainable financial service providers.