Why do MFIs charge high interest rates to poor people?
Concerns often arise as to why microcredit interest rates are higher than the bank interest rates that wealthier people pay. The issue is cost: the administrative cost of making tiny loans is much higher in percentage terms than the cost of making a large loan. It takes a lot less staff time to make a single loan of $100,000 than 1,000 loans of $100 each. Besides loan size, other factors can make microcredit more expensive to deliver. Credit decisions for borrowers who have neither collateral nor a salary cannot be based on automated scoring. These decisions require substantial intervention of a loan officer in judging the risk of each loan. MFIs may operate in areas that are remote or have low population density, making lending more expensive. This is often why traditional banks tend to stay away from such areas. If an MFI wants to operate sustainably, it has to price its loans high enough to cover all its costs. Although microcredit interest rates can be legitimately high, inefficien
