General information
A large part of the people on this planet have no access to financial services. People who can only show very little income or assets are not perceived as clients by traditional banks. Small and very small businesses, farmers, women, and more generally people with low income are excluded from financial services in many countries. The possibility of saving money, gaining access to small loans, and transferring money means a significant improvement of economic efficiency. For significant parts of the population of many developing countries and countries in transition, these possibilities are anything but guaranteed, however.

The United Nations has recognized the potential of microfinance. The UN Year of Microcredit (2005) has helped generate more attention among the general public for this valuable instrument of development cooperation.

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus shows that the importance of microfinance is gaining ever greater recognition.

The financial world has also noticed microfinance. On the one hand, there are investors who, in addition to financial returns, also want to generate social returns. On the other hand, large institutional investors have discovered microfinance and are using the acyclic characteristic of such investments to diversify their portfolio. Microfinance is therefore not only attractive for socially engaged investors, but also for investors who want to use microfinance to reduce their risk (see Investment).