@workingpaper{Nwachukwu2015b,
title = {The Determinants of Interest Rates in Microbanks: Age and Scale},
author = {Simplice Asongu A Jacinta C. Nwachukwu},
editor = {African 2015 Governance and Development Institute WP/15/004},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/The-Determinants-of-Interest-Rates-in-Microbanks.pdf},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-02-01},
abstract = {This study investigates the legitimacy of the relatively high interest rates charged by those microfinance institutions (MFIs) which have been transformed into regulated commercial banks using information garnered from a panel of 1232 MFIs from 107 developing countries. Results show that formally regulated micro banks have significantly higher average portfolio yields than their unregulated counterparts. By contrast, large-scale MFIs with more than eight years of experience have succeeded in lowering interest rates, but only up to a certain cut-off point. The implication is that policies which help nascent small-scale MFIs to overcome their cost disadvantages form a more effective pricing strategy than do initiatives to transform them into regulated institutions.},
keywords = {age, Developing countries, economies of scale, interest rates, microbanks, Microfinance, non-bank financial institutions},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}