Rating Initiative clôture le fonds de cofinancement et poursuit son engagement pour la viabilité du marché de la notation

23. December 2011

The Rating Initiative terminated its MFI rating co-funding mechanism for microfinance institutions on 21 December. A new phase of the project will begin in March 2012 with the aim of contributing to the market viability of the microfinance rating.

The Rating Initiative program was established in 2008 by ADA in collaboration with many partners of the public and private sector to enhance the transparency of the microfinance sector. During the past three years, 206 social ratings and 125 financial ratings have been subsidized, far exceeding the target. Despite this success, the experiment revealed that the long-term future of the market for microfinance rating was still uncertain. Despite the promotion of the microfinance rating conducted by the Rating Initiative - in particular through publications and international events - the use of ratings by microfinance institutions is still too marginal.

Rating Initiative funders - ADA, Luxembourg Cooperation, Swiss Development Cooperation, Microfinance Initiative Liechtenstein, Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank (OeEB), ICCO, Principality of Monaco, Oxfam Novib, Blue Orchard - have therefore opted for a new strategic direction, which aims at supporting the development of a viable rating market. Six key objectives will contribute to it:
1) Terminate the plan of co-financing ratings
2) Support the four rating agencies in the product development manager financial rating (NFR)
3) To encourage standardization of methodologies of NFR and communicate a coherent signal in the
4) Increase the demand for notations with awareness campaigns at the level of investor
5) Convince the global players and regional microfinance to continue to promote rating
6) Being a platform for coordination of funders who support the social rating