经济学人｜The Economist｜微型金融｜第3期

经济学人｜The Economist｜微型金融｜第3期

Microfinance

微型金融

Sub-par but not subprime

“微”而不“次”

Mar 19th 2009 |LONDON AND TOKYO

2009年3月19日伦敦、东京

From The Economist print edition

摘自《经济学家》打印版

导读；这篇文章摘自杂志《经济学人》2009年3月19日的一篇文章，貌似离现在很长时间，但就话题和内容和考研非常相近，一定会给你很大帮助，笔者认为不管何种考试遇到原文几乎不可能的，所以各位同学和读者应该静下心来，提高自己的语言能力，从阅读中享受快乐。

 微型金融对于很多人来都有那么一点陌生，百度词条显示如下；

1 Lending to the poor has held up well but it is not as safe from the credit crisis as its champions hoped

译：适逢信贷危机，面向贫困者的贷款业务还算稳定，不过也没能像拥护者们期望的那样独善其身

2 A GLOBAL credit crisis caused by subprime mortgages is hardly the ideal backdrop for a business making unsecured loans to poor people without a credit history. Yet big microfinance companies, which do exactly that, seem to be in rude health.Mohammad Yunus, the unflappably optimistic founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, a microfinance institution for which he won the Nobel Peace Prizein 2006, is adamant that business remains unscathed. “We have not been touched in any way by the financial crisis,” he said on a recent visit to Japan. “The simple reason is because we are rooted to the real economy-we are not paper-based, paper-chasing banking. When we give a loan of $100, behind the$100 there are chickens, there are cows. It is not something imaginary.”

译：虽然次级抵押贷款引发的全球信贷危机很难成为开展面向穷人的无抵押品贷款业务的理想条件，但是那些经营该业务的大型微型金融公司看起来却异常稳健。位于孟加拉国的格莱珉银行就是一家提供微型金融服务的机构，其创始人穆罕默德*尤努斯因为成立该机构，于2006年获得了。沉稳、乐观的尤努斯坚信公司业务未受影响，并在最近一次日本之行中表示：“我们在金融危机中毫发无损，原因很简单，我们扎根于实体经济，而不是有价证券，也不是纸片追逐游戏式的银行模式。当我们贷出100美元的时候，这笔钱要么用来养鸡，要么养牛，都是些看得见摸得着的东西”。

3 He is not alone in thinking that microfinance is insulated from the problems of the global economy. Its proponents argue that any similarity with subprime loans is misleading. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) lend relatively small sums of money to people in developing countries to start small, profitable businesses,not to buy overpriced homes. Many of those businesses serve local needs, which has more merit at a time when exports are collapsing. And microfinance's reliance on peer pressure for repayment must be the envy of any mainstream banker struggling with rising foreclosures and “jingle mail”; delinquency rates are microscopic.

译：并非尤努斯一人认为微型金融可以在全球经济陷入困境时独善其身。追随者们认为，任何在微型金融和次级贷款之间寻求共性的举动都是一种误导。微型金融机构提供数额较小的贷款，发展中国家的人们以此做些有利可图的小买卖，而不是购买充满泡沫的房产。许多这类小买卖主要是为满足当地需求，一旦出口萎缩，其优势也就体现出来了。另外，微型金融依靠的是竞相还贷的趋同心理，这也必定让主流银行家们眼红，因为他们要疲于应付日渐增多的抵押贷款违约(表现为日益上升的止赎率和越来越多的寄钥匙的包裹，而微型金融的违约率微乎其微。

4 Some MFIs,however, do not enjoy the same isolation that their borrowers do. Many of them are funded internationally. According to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a research centre in Washington, DC, foreign-capital flows into microfinance tripled between 2004 and 2006. About half the industry's funding comes from aid budgets, but the share of private money is growing. The WorldBank's private arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC. gave 55% more each year to microfinance lenders between 2004 and 2007.） MFIs, especially those in eastern Europe and Central Asia, also borrowed from foreign banks. Meanwhilethe microfinance portfolios of private investment funds grew from $600 m in2004 to $2 billion in 2006.

译：不过有些微型金融机构并不像他们的借款人那样轻松，这些机构中很多都是跨国融资的。扶贫协商小组(CGAP)是一家设在美国华盛顿特区的研究中心，据该小组称，2004年~2006年间流入微型金融的外国资本增长了两倍。微型金融机构的资本约有一半来自援助预算，不过民间资本的比重正在增加。2004年~2007年间，世界银行所属的国际金融公司(IFC.每年为微型融资机构提供55％以上的融资。微型融资机构也从外国银行贷款，尤其是东欧和中非的微型融资机构。同时微型融资机构的资本组合中，民间资本也由2004年的6亿增加到2006年的20亿。

5 Funding from development institutions like the IFC is likely to be stable, but aid budgets are being cut and other sources of funding are threatened, too. Kimanthi Mutua,who runs K-Rep Bank, a big Kenyan microlender, says that in 2007 he fielded calls from prospective investors every couple of weeks. For the past six monthshe has not had a single call. According to CGAP's Elizabeth Littlefield, borrowing costs have risen by up to four and a half percentage points in some markets.Foreign-currency borrowers may have exchange-rate fluctuations to cope with.And some global banks are pulling out altogether. Even MFIs that borrow locally may find their banks' funding is constrained by global conditions.

译：从发展援助机构融资可能比较稳定，不过援助预算正在削减，其他的融资渠道也受到威胁。齐曼西*穆托(Kimanthi Mutua)在肯尼亚经营一家较大的微型金融机构，名为K-Rep银行，他说2007年的时候每隔几周就会接到潜在投资者的电话，然而过去的六个月里，他一个电话也没接到。据来自扶贫协商小组(CGAP)的伊丽莎白.利特菲尔德(Elizabeth Littlefield)称，有些市场借款成本增加了4.5％。借外币的人要应对汇率波动的问题。一些跨国银行完全撤出这一市场。全球形势甚至令在本地融资的微型金融机构在贷款时也受到了限制。

6 An even more pressing concern is refinancing existing debt. Most MFIs have loans with one-or two-year tenures. According to the IFC, there is a potential refinancing gap of$1.8 billion over the next 18 months. The IFC and the German government have put together a $500 m fund to help microfinance firms with refinancing.

译：更为紧迫的一个问题是债务再融资。多数微型金融机构都背负1~2年期的贷款。据国际金融公司(IFC.称，未来18个月可能出现18亿美元的再融资缺口。国际金融公司(IFC.和德国政府共同设立了一个5亿美元的基金以帮助这些微型金融机构再融资。

7 All this, someexperts argue, should encourage the institutions to start raising funds by collecting deposits rather than relying on fickle markets or donors. In Africa many MFIs already do this. The slow slog of attracting depositors can be off-putting, however, and may become harder if the crisis deepens. The WorldBank estimates that worsening economic conditions could push an additional 65 m people under the $2-a-day poverty line. These people-formerly known as the“nearly poor”-were just the sort whose savings deposit-taking MFIs had hoped to target.

译：一些人认为，所有这些都应该促使这些微型金融机构通过吸收存款来筹集资金，而不是单靠变数过多的市场和捐赠。许多非洲的微型金融机构已经这么做了。或许老牛拉车般吸收存款有些恼人，然而一旦危机进一步恶化，想让人存钱也难。世界银行估计，江河日下的全球经济可能再将6500万人推到每天2美元的贫困线以下。这些此前被列入“准贫困”行列的人，恰恰是微型金融机构吸收存款的对象。

8 The squeeze on credit could expose additional frailties in the microfinance model. Many observers suspect that at least some microfinance loans actually finance consumption, not investment, and that borrowers use new loans from one MFI to pay off their debts with another. As long as new credit is readily available,this strategy works-much as paying off one credit card with another once did in the rich world. But the credit crunch may expose this as a problem, reckons Justin Oliver, who runs the Centre for Microfinance, a research centre inChennai, India. Meanwhile, the IFC reports that data from the top 150 microfinance  institutions show that the share of borrowers 30 days delinquent on their loans has increased from 1.2% before the crisis to between 2% and 3% now. This is still very low by most standards and Mr Yunus says that repayment rates at Grameen remain impeccable. But the worry is that a prolonged credit crunch could make microfinance clients start to look more like those hapless subprime borrowers.

译：信贷的收紧可能令微型金融模式暴露出新的弱点，至少在许多观察家眼里，一些来自微型金融机构的贷款实际上没有用于投资，而是用于消费，借款人用从这家微型金融机构获得贷款，再偿还其在另一家微型金融机构的贷款。只要能够轻易获得新贷款，这种策略就会奏效，酷似一度在发达国家出现的用一张信用卡为另外一张信用卡埋单的现象。而在贾斯廷*奥利弗(Justin Oliver)看来，信贷紧缩的情况下，这种现象可能会产生问题，奥利弗(Oliver)来自位于印度钦奈的微型金融模式研究中心。同时，据国际金融公司(IFC.称，排名前150的微型金融机构的数据显示，30天贷款违约的借款人比例由金融危机前的1.2％上升到现在的2~3％。按照大多数标准衡量，这一数字仍旧很低，同时微型金融模式创始人尤努斯说格莱珉银行的贷款偿还率依旧让人无可挑剔。不过人们担心的是，旷日持久的信贷紧缩可能让微型金融模式下的借款人越长越像那些倒霉的次贷申请者。

Microfinance

Sub-par but not subprime

Mar 19th 2009 | LONDON AND TOKYO

From The Economistprint edition

1 Lending to thepoor has held up well but it is not as safe from the credit crisis as itschampions hoped

2 A GLOBAL creditcrisis caused by subprime mortgages is hardly the ideal backdrop for a businessmaking unsecured loans to poor people without a credit history. Yet bigmicrofinance companies, which do exactly that, seem to be in rude health.Mohammad Yunus, the unflappably optimistic founder of Grameen Bank inBangladesh, a microfinance institution for which he won the Nobel Peace Prizein 2006, is adamant that business remains unscathed. “We have not been touchedin any way by the financial crisis,” he said on a recent visit to Japan. “Thesimple reason is because we are rooted to the real economy-we are notpaper-based, paper-chasing banking. When we give a loan of $100, behind the$100 there are chickens, there are cows. It is not something imaginary.”

3 He is not alonein thinking that microfinance is insulated from the problems of the globaleconomy. Its proponents argue that any similarity with subprime loans ismisleading. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) lend relatively small sums ofmoney to people in developing countries to start small, profitable businesses,not to buy overpriced homes. Many of those businesses serve local needs, whichhas more merit at a time when exports are collapsing. And microfinance'sreliance on peer pressure for repayment must be the envy of any mainstreambanker struggling with rising foreclosures and “jingle mail”; delinquency ratesare microscopic.

4 Some MFIs,however, do not enjoy the same isolation that their borrowers do. Many of themare funded internationally. According to the Consultative Group to Assist thePoor (CGAP), a research centre in Washington, DC, foreign-capital flows intomicrofinance tripled between 2004 and 2006. About half the industry's fundingcomes from aid budgets, but the share of private money is growing. The WorldBank's private arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC. gave 55% moreeach year to microfinance lenders between 2004 and 2007. MFIs, especially thosein eastern Europe and Central Asia, also borrowed from foreign banks. Meanwhilethe microfinance portfolios of private investment funds grew from $600 m in2004 to $2 billion in 2006.

5 Funding fromdevelopment institutions like the IFC is likely to be stable, but aid budgetsare being cut and other sources of funding are threatened, too. Kimanthi Mutua,who runs K-Rep Bank, a big Kenyan microlender, says that in 2007 he fieldedcalls from prospective investors every couple of weeks. For the past six monthshe has not had a single call. According to CGAP's Elizabeth Littlefield, borrowingcosts have risen by up to four and a half percentage points in some markets.Foreign-currency borrowers may have exchange-rate fluctuations to cope with.And some global banks are pulling out altogether. Even MFIs that borrow locallymay find their banks' funding is constrained by global conditions.

6 An even morepressing concern is refinancing existing debt. Most MFIs have loans with one-ortwo-year tenures. According to the IFC, there is a potential refinancing gap of$1.8 billion over the next 18 months. The IFC and the German government haveput together a $500 m fund to help microfinance firms with refinancing.

7 All this, someexperts argue, should encourage the institutions to start raising funds bycollecting deposits rather than relying on fickle markets or donors. In Africamany MFIs already do this. The slow slog of attracting depositors can beoff-putting, however, and may become harder if the crisis deepens. The WorldBank estimates that worsening economic conditions could push an additional 65 mpeople under the $2-a-day poverty line. These people-formerly known as the“nearly poor”-were just the sort whose savings deposit-taking MFIs had hoped totarget