المستخلص: |
This study is an empirical study that measures the impact of both the competition level and the financial sustainability of the microfinance institutions on the growth and risk of the microfinance industry globally. The growth variable is approximated through the growth of the number of clients (borrowers and depositors). The risk variable is approximated by getting the weighted average of two ratios; portfolio at risk greater than 30 days ratio and portfolio at risk greater than 90 days ratio. Using the data of 771 microfinance institutions distributed in 60 countries for the year 2008-2009, it was found that both competition level and financial sustainability variables have no significance with the growth of the number of borrowers and depositors. However, it was found that financial sustainability has significant negative impact on the risk, while the increased competition between different microfinance institutions has insignificant negative impact on the risk. These findings suggest that market structure is irrelevant while sustainability lowers the risk level of microfinance institutions but has no effect on their growth. Futther research can be done to explore how competition and financial sustainability impact the type of clients of these institutions in addition to their relationship with other variables like the ownership of the institution and the loan size.
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