Products & Services

ACCION's Technical Assistance (TA) team and Marketing and Product Development (MPD) unit are dedicated to helping partner institutions develop and implement microfinance products, including:

Credit Methodology - Credit methodology lies at the heart of microfinance and its quality is one of the most determinant factors for the efficiency, impact and profitability of a microfinance institution (MFI). Getting the credit methodology and product mix right is therefore one of the most demanding as well as rewarding challenges MFIs face. Learn more >>

Credit Scoring - The aim of credit scoring is to help MFIs improve their loan evaluation processes while lowering the labor costs of authorizing and collecting loans. ACCION's credit scoring model, the first automated method for credit analysis in microfinance, allows MFIs to use historical information on client characteristics and credit-related variables to calculate the risk of extending credit. Learn more >>

Customer Retention - A comprehensive understanding of the customer and an analysis of the reasons for leaving a microfinance institution is required in order to develop an effective client retention strategy. ACCION has developed a framework and a systematic process to improve customer retention. Learn more >>

Delivery Channels - Recently, microfinance institutions have been considering non-traditional, or, alternative, ways of distributing credit and other financial services to the poor. ACCION works with its partner microfinance institutions to develop these alternative delivery channels so that they may reach scale through massively extending their outreach and dramatically reducing their costs. Learn more >>

Housing Microfinance - Just as innovative institutions have revolutionized access to business loans for millions of microentrepreneurs in recent decades, similar innovations are beginning to revolutionize housing finance for the poor. ACCION International and its partner microfinance institutions are experimenting with applying the lessons learned from successful microenterprise lending programs to make housing finance affordable and accessible for poor households. Learn more >>

Marketing Strategies - Microfinance institutions face increasing challenges to grow at faster speed under greater competition and more informed and demanding customers. As they progress towards offering a complete range of financial services to the poor, and not just credit, ACCION is assisting MFIs in developing sophisticated marketing strategies and practices tailored to the particular needs of their clients. Learn more >>

Market Intelligence - In response to the changing and increasingly competitive environment in the microfinance industry and the necessity to grow, MFIs require extensive market data and intelligence to make investment decisions, develop sustainable competitive strategies, and position themselves effectively in the market. ACCION works with its partners to develop effective market intelligence strategies for collecting and analzying data about their customers in order to better understand their markets and refine their services to meet their clients' needs. Learn more >>

Microinsurance - Catastrophic losses – such as those caused by death, fire, theft, or natural disasters – can wipe out a microentrepreneur's lifetime of work. Microfinance institutions are also affected by these events, as they lose portfolio and valuable customers. To help mitigate these catastrophic losses for both the client and the institution, ACCION helps MFIs develop the right insurance policies for their clients. Learn more >>

Microfinance in Commercial Banks - Commercial banks, with their extensive physical, financial and human resources, can launch and expand microfinance services more efficiently and relatively less expensively than pure start-ups. ACCION helps overcome the obstacles that have traditionally kept commercial banks out of microfinance so they can be highly competitive in the microfinance arena. Learn more >>

PortaCredit^TM - One of the most innovative MFI technologies currently available is the ACCION-pioneered PortaCredit^TM, an application designed to run on a handheld computer or personal digital assistant (PDA). Using a PDA equipped with PortaCredit, loan officers can input client data while in the field, complete and process applications and make loan calculations. Learn more >>

Remittances -  The increased volume of funds, sent mostly to low-income families, has prompted a heightened interest in identifying mechanisms that can lower the costs of these transfers and raise their economic impact. By providing remittances, an MFI can diversify its products, attract new clients and provide greater value to existing clients. Learn more >>

Rural Finance - The rural poor constitute both the greatest unmet need and largest unserved market for microfinance services. ACCION's objectives in rural microfinance are to extend the frontier of sustainable microfinance beyond urban areas by overcoming cost barriers, mitigating risk, and exploring technological and methodological innovations. 

Savings - Credit is only part of the financial services equation: equally important to MFI clients are savings programs that meet their needs. ACCION is working with several of its partners to help them design and implement savings products. Learn more >>

Social Monitoring - Most MFIs have a double bottom line, that is, their core purpose is to meet social objectives, which they attempt to do while maintaining financial viability. To date, MFIs have few tools for measuring social objectives. ACCION's Poverty Assessment and Social Performance project addresses this challenge. Learn more >>

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