MFIs need a separate regulator: Yunus

Yunus,who was answering a question about whether Indian MFI sector needed more regulation,demanded that companies like SKS Microfinance and others like it,who have turned “loan-sharks” overnight by commercialising,should stop calling themselves microfinanciers.

This is the best service they can do to the “real micro- lenders,” he said.

“If you want to commercialise,please choose a different name,and not micro-financiers. Real microfinanciers are not commercially minded. Ours is not a commercial enterprise but a social business,” the professor said.

He further pointed out that “the ultimate objective of MFIs is to ensure financial inclusion and not making profit.

So long as they work towards this objective,they are microfinance companies and when they start looking at profit they become loan-sharks or commercial entities.”