Are microfinance institutions in a mire?

Q: Would you worry that there are a lot of private equity funds and now money sought to be raised even through the IPO market, is there not a sense that this is becoming just a business and that social entrepreneurship spirit that still propels a lot of MFI is not there in all the cases and these few bad eggs might lead to too much of regulation or maybe even resistance from the borrower and therefore destroy the industry altogether?

A: That's a legitimate question to ask, which is, 'how do we thread the needle in terms of ensuring that while we embrace the power of the market that we don't fall victim to the ruthless logic of the market because at the end of the day the power of the market is a double edged sword? The original intent of microfinance was driven by both embracing market based approaches, but also pursuing a social objective. I think every institution that is operating in the microfinance space must come up with a credible answer to the question, 'how do we balance the two needs and not led the force of the market, create a mission-drift on the social side?' The fact that we are accessing more and more market based capital raises the question about this and I think it's a legitimate question and it's a question that the sector must ponder about and each institutions must come up with their solutions.