Micro Finance in Bangladesh

The introduction of micro finance in Bangladesh is being thought of as a useful way to alleviate the financial problems of the common people, as most of them are not well off economically. However the micro finance in Bangladesh works in the form of an organized industry.

There is a proper market form of the micro finance industry in Bangladesh, which consists of the non-government organizations, programs for the public sector cooperatives and perhaps the most important name in South East Asian micro finance, Grameen Bank.

The micro finance service providers in Bangladesh were not really attentive with regard to their financial statistics and updating them. These companies used to emphasize more on the social aspects of their work more rather than the financial one. The situation has improved significantly over the passage of time.

It is imperative for the well being of the micro finance industry in Bangladesh that the companies should be giving more emphasis on the financial aspect of their transactions. The term commercialization happens to be an emerging idea in the context of the micro finance in Bangladesh.
The unique feature of commercialization is that according to this aspect of micro finance, the poor are regarded as clients and not beneficiaries and the micro finance market is integrated into the total financial industry of a country. The micro finance is now regarded in Bangladesh as a proper industry and not a charitable institution as it may be in some other countries across the world.

The current scenario of micro finance in Bangladesh has shown that the industry is at the juncture of evolution. The following factors or phenomena could be regarded as indicators to the same:

* Highest Frequency of Prevailing Interest Rates.
* Evolving Microcredit Theme
* Individual Loans
* Product Diversification
* Enterprise Loans
* Overlapping
* Savings Collection from Non-Members
* Huge Uncalled For Consumption Loans