L'Influence De La Régulation Sur La Contribution De La Microfinance Au Développement : Le Cas De La Bolivie

Bolivia, a microfinance pioneer, is also among the first countries that started regulating this activity. Firmly supported by international institutions, the country?s regulatory framework was designed to promote a commercial vision of the sector, encouraging growth and sustainability. The rules put into place standardized practices and gave priority to profitability and stability. Nevertheless, they hampered microfinance service providers from meeting the social mission they had initially set themselves. Given these shortcomings, the government introduced new public policies to put pressure on providers to intervene more in rural and productive sectors. To overcome these contradictory constraints, some actors put forward norms that combine social and financial criteria. In the current context, such evolutions can contribute to thought/discussions on how to improve financial regulation.