Is Microfinance Destined To Be The Next Subprime Mortgage Mess?: Free Article For Distribution

May 28, 2008 - PRLog -- When Compartamos, a Mexican microfinance institution, first issued its lucrative IPO in April 2007, a fiery controversy was sparked.  Some praised the company for driving more money toward the microfinance industry and reaching greater numbers of borrowers.  Others criticized that this was just another way for the rich to profit off the poor, this time by charging too-high interest rates in order to pass on substantial profits.  Moral questions aside, the arrangement has its weaknesses, but is it as bad as some are saying?  Is microfinance a promising, socially-conscious investment or could it be another subprime mortgage mess in the making?  

Peter Greer, president of microfinance network HOPE International, teams with Jim Deitch, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of American Home Bank, to offer a thoughtful discussion of the topic, conveying both the strengths and weaknesses of opening the microfinance sector to investment.  HOPE International is now offering this article for publication, free of charge.  To read the full article or for more information on publishing “Is Microfinance Destined to be the Next Subprime Mortgage Mess?” at no cost to your media organization, please contact Jill Seibert, Marketing Communications Specialist with HOPE International, at 717.464.3220, Ext. 245 or jseibert@hopeinternational.org.

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About HOPE International: HOPE empowers those living in need around the world to escape poverty by providing microloans, savings services, training, and mentoring to help people become self-sufficient.  Working in 13 of the poorest, least-served countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean, HOPE is a Christian faith-based 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on alleviating the many dimensions of poverty – physical, social, and spiritual – through microenterprise development.