Microfinance is a new concept in the Maldives. In 2015, the first Islamic microfinance scheme was introduced under the name of "FaseyhaMadadhu" with assistance from Islamic Development Bank. The products developed under this scheme were unique as it was shaped by looking at local needs. This paper will discuss these products and the features of it. It is hard to find literature about the subject matter as this is a newly introduced scheme and the first-hand experience of the author in structuring and implementing the scheme has been relied extensively. It is anticipated that the outcome of this paper will pave the way for those jurisdictions that aim to introduce Islamic microfinance

Micro-enterprises, like any other business entity, face financing challenges. However, micro-enterprises often cannot access financial institutions as they cannot fulfill the conditions to obtain financing facilities from a formal financial institution. As such, they have to rely on family or friends for financing needs. The most critical challenge faced in this regard to Muslim micro-enterprises is finding out a way in which family and friends could give a financial helping hand without the involvement of riba (interest). At the same time, the person giving the financing can enjoy a profit. This paper aims to propose the tawarruq fardi financing (TFF) model that Islamic micro-enterprises could use to fulfill their financial needs. It becomes a solution when obtaining financing from friends and family or any other third party who could be a private investor who does not want to engage in an equity relationship. This study adopts a qualitative research methodology, combining descriptive and content analysis using the inductive reasoning approach. The paper's outcome shows that the proposed TFF could assist Islamic micro-enterprises in obtaining Shariah-compliant financing without engaging in an equity partnership. It allows them to fulfill their financing needs bearing in mind the interest of both parties involved in the transaction.

The microfinance industry can reach the poor in large scale and yet attain profitability. To maintain these two objectives which is known as double bottom line, microfinance institutions (MFIs) have to find the right balance between financial sustainability and social performance. However, there have been considerable debates on whether the goals of the double bottom line have been compromised. It is argued that to attain profitability, MFIs have allegedly shifted away from its mandate of serving the poorest borrowers in pursuit of financial sustainability. This phenomenon is described as "mission drift" ...

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Bangladesh have been providing savings services to their clients at least for the past 15 years. However, whether an MFI should have institutional requirement(s) to be a deposit-taker generates interest among academics and policy makers. Thus, this short note aims to provide a brief overview of institutional properties of MFIs. This study used the existing literature and reports by the Microcredit Regulatory Authority' to investigate institutional properties of MFIs. In doing so, we have used 'institutional theory of saving' as a theoretical ground. Although the 'institutional theory of saving' has several important properties, the existing literature mostly discusses seven features such as information, incentives, facilitation, expectation, access, restrictions and security. It is found that MFIs in general should have all the seven important institutional properties to be considered as an ideal savings institution. With regards to the microfinance sector in Bangladesh, this study supports that all the NGO-MFIs have these properties to be considered as an ideal deposit taker. The microfinance sector in Bangladesh needs to design and develop comprehensive and customer friendly savings products to further motivate the poor to save in MFIs.

Every human needs a good and quality life. A quality living is essential to ensure positive physical, mental as well as spiritual development in an individual. This balanced individual will form a stable family unit and later on contribute to a progressive community in a bigger social entity. A comfortable life is usually challenged by indispensable social ill called poverty. It is a global phenomenon that has challenged the economic, social and political landscape of every society in the world including Malaysia ...

All the human beings in this world deserve to have a better quality of life. In order to achieve the noble notion, the chronic social disease called poverty must be expelled. It is a multidimensional phenomenon that has defied the social, economic and political landscape of every nation and society in various parts of the world. Thus, there is an urgent need to combat poverty and empowering the poor in order to develop both the physical and social well-being as well as to enhance the quality life of the people. One of the effective and powerful tools to combat poverty is by providing microfinance access to the poor ...

In the last three decades, the microfinance market has continued to grow, from 13 million clients in 1997 to 98 million in 2009 and 139.9 million in 2018. As microfinance grows, a transformational change in microfinance in microfinance has taken place. Prior to the 1990s, microfinance worked more as microcredit for poverty alleviation and development instruments which were still subsidized. But today microfinance has turned into a more complex ecosystem with more varied market participants and approaches. Will these microfinance institutions be sustainable in providing financial and social services now and in the future? What are the key variables that play an important role in the sustainability of the MFIs? This study is to help find the answers to these questions using a multi-criteria decision-making framework and a dynamic parametric analysis. This study aims to measure the sustainability of microfinance institutions in a multi-dimensional manner so that the achievement of its mission - the triple bottom line - can be measured and evaluated. This study also examines MFI in OIC member countries considering that OIC is a group of countries with the the second largest number of members after the United Nations. Investigating the MFIs from 111 countries worldwide from 2003 to 2019, this study utilizes the TOPSIS and VIKOR frameworks as the two multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches that have been proven efficient, consistent, and compatible with the decision problem on measuring MFI's sustainability performance. This study utilized a framework of governance approach and institutional theory to predict the key variables of MFI's sustainability performance through a dynamic parametric method, namely generalized method of moment, known as GMM.