Role Reversal Revisited: Are public development institutions still crowding out private funders?

MicroRate's latest study, Role Reversal Revisited finds that public development institutions are still crowding out private investment in microfinance. 

Five years after the original Role Reversal study was published, Role Reversal Revisited concludes that the competition is even more pronounced. 

Key findings include:

• Top-performing MFIs with easy access to private funding are the preferred target for development finance institution (DFI) lending, with ten large MFIs absorbing nearly half of all DFI lending to MFIs between 2008 and 2010.
• During 2006-2010, official lenders lent at interest rates which were on average approximately 250 basis points (2.5%) below-market rates. 
• Far from ceding ground to private lenders, DFIs accelerated their lending for microfinance. In 2007, they overtook private funding as the leading source of foreign microfinance investment. 

Role Reversal Revisited was sponsored by the Calmeadow Foundation and the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds (CMEF).