7/29 Roundup

Quite a few interesting stories in microfinance today. One little nugget that came out was in a book review of Prosperity Unbound by Elena Panaritis. Her book addresses the need to secure land titles and other property rights for the poor. However, she also mentions the complementary role microfinance can play, for-I suppose-what good are property rights if you don’t have capital to purchase property in the first place.

The Associated Press, covering this week’s Microcredit Summit Campaign conference, is reporting on the success of the new Microfinance Transparency initiative. It’s goal is for MFIs to adhere to certain openness standards, including the interest rates they charge their clients. (more)

And finally, Dr. Yunus made news at the conference this week by inveighing against increasing role of profit seekers in the microfinance world. The question of whether for profit microfinance advances the causes or hurts it seems to be the central debate in microfinance. (more from the Financial Times)