Field Brief No. 7: Non-profit Microfinance Institutions Consider Commercialization

The Expanded and Sustained Access to Financial Services Program (ESAF), funded through USAID’s FIELD‐Support LWA, was managed by FHI 360 (formerly AED) with technical support from ShoreBank International (SBI) and others. ESAF supports USAID in its efforts to build a more inclusive financial sector that increases sustainable access to financial services for Palestinian households and micro, small and medium enterprises. Through a variety of interventions, ESAF is addressing weaknesses in the financial system at all levels, from banking to the financial industry to regulatory environment. In 2008 and 2009, ESAF and SBI worked with two key Palestinian microfinance institutions (MFIs): FATEN, one of Palestine’s largest non‐profit MFIs, and Reef Finance Co., a rural agricultural MFI. SBI provided ongoing targeted technical assistance to the MFIs as they explored commercialization.

This “FIELD Brief” is the seventh in a series produced by the Financial Integration, Economic Leveraging and Broad-Based Dissemination (FIELD)-Support Program. This brief discusses the experience of two prominent Palestinian microfinance institutions in their decision to commercialize their operations.