Welcome address

• Y C Nanda, Chairman, Microfinance India Advisory Group

Special address

• Bhagyashri Dengle, Executive Director, PLAN India
• Robert Annibale, Global Director, Microfinance, Citigroup
• Caitlin Wiesen, Country Director, UNDP
• Elaben Bhatt, Chairperson, SEWA Cooperative Bank
• Dr Prakash Bakshi, Chairman, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)*

Keynote address

• D.K. Mittal, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India

Release of:

• State of the Sector Report 2011
• Two Decades of SHGs in Microfinance: Time for a New Direction?
• Microfinance India Social Performance Report 2011

This session will be based on the Microfinance India State of the Sector report 2011 brought out ACCESS annually. The Report this year, in addition to the regular features of capturing the progress of SHG and MFI channels, reviewing the investment climate, highlighting efforts towards Social performance management and financial inclusion, will also discuss the turn of events around the AP crisis, the impending regulation and present the potential role of NRLM in enhancing access to finance. The Session on State of the sector is a standard first plenary session in the Summit that provides an overview of the sector and discusses significant issues and factors that have affected and shaped the sector during the year. The session will seek to assess the damage caused to the sector’s growth and reputation and identify possible ways to redeem its credibility.

Moderator

• Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, Research Director, India Development Foundation

Lead Presenter

• N Srinivasan, Author, State of the Sector Report

Discussant

• Alok Prasad, Chief Executive Officer, Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN)
• Rajalaxmi Kamath, Associate Professor, Center for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management
• Gregory C Chen, Regional Representative for South Asia, CGAP
• Veena Mankar, Managing Director, Swadhar Fin Serve
• Vijayalakshmi Das, CEO, Ananya Finance for Inclusive Growth

The SHG-Bank Linkage programme will soon be completing two decades. It is an appropriate time to take stock as well as critically reflect on achievements and shortcomings of this large programme and to identify new strategies and areas for investment to give the programme a renewed momentum. The need and significance of giving the SHG programme its next push, particularly is critical owing to the fact that under the NRLM roll out, large resources will be assigned to promote SHG based community based institutions on the ground, and through these, possibilities of promoting sustainable livelihoods of the poor is sought to be enabled. The panel will discuss both the opportunities and impediments for the programme as it enters the second phase of its evolution. This session will also review the programme’s performance over the two decades and seek to build a consensus on the key strategies for the next phase of the SHG movement.

Chair:

• Y.C. Nanda, Chairman, Agriculture Finance Corporation

Lead Presenter:

• Dr B S Suran, General Manager, MCID, NABARD

Discussants:

• T. Vijay Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, NRLM
• Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Seibel, University of Cologne
• Aloysius Fernandez, Member Secretary, MYRADA, & Chairperson, NABFINS
• Malcolm Harper, Chairman of M-CRIL, Emeritus Professor, Cranfield School of Management, UK
• D Narendranath, Programme Director, PRADAN

With the opening up of the Insurance sector in 1999, the number of companies, both in life and non-life, have gone up and the new era has seen the entry of international insurers, the proliferation of innovative products & distribution channels and raising of supervision standards. However, most of these Insurers have confined their operations to cities with limited penetration in tier II & tier III cities. The insurance coverage in rural areas is still extremely low and is confined mainly to the top 5 % of the rural population. The government has separate co-contributory schemes for life, health and pension coverage. The session will delve into the feasibility, design, possible roll out strategy and expected challenges of a combo-social security product that covers life and health insurance and pension. It will also delve on the resources and institutional arrangements that will be required for the scheme’s implementation.

Lead Presenter and Moderator:

• Arvind Kumar, Joint Secretary, Financial Services

Discussants:

• B Chakraborty
• Hemant Kaul, MD and CEO, Bajaj Allianz Insurance
• Gautam Bhardwaj, Director, Invest India Micro Pension Services (IIMPS)
• Padma Iyer Kaul, Executive Director, PFRDA
• Dr David M Dror, Founding Chairman, Micro Insurance Academy

As the microfinance sector grows rapidly in size and nature across the world, business and market information needs also change, increasing in complexity and scale. Access to appropriate data at the right time can drive policy dialog, enhance MFI performance and avert crises. While India already has myriad timely and high quality data products on the sector, gaps still remain. Furthermore, the production of data and/or analytical products, however poignant, does not always translate into institutional performance or policy changes. This session will look at data and information in India in the context of responsible finance, taking stock of past achievements and outlining horizons for the future.

Moderator:

• Royston Braganza, CEO, Grameen Capital India

Discussants:

• P K Saha, Chief General Manager, SIDBI
• Alok Misra, CEO, MCRIL
• Matthew Titus, Executive Director, Sa-Dhan
• Liz Larson, Asia Regional Manager, MIX
• Priya Shanker, Assistant Vice President, MFIN
• Eric Savage, Co-founder and President, Unitus Capital
• Colin Raymond, Principal Operations Officer, Global Financial Markets Department, IFC

There is a multiplicity of methodologies and indicators which emphasize inclusion of social performance standards in concurrence with financial performance. There is also an emphasis from investors as well as lenders on incorporation of Social performance metrics and on adherence to code of conduct. Against this backdrop, MFIs are undertaking objective steps to manage and enhance their social performance, which range from changes in product features and delivery processes, communication with clients, human resources management practices including emphasis on women supportive work policies, governance, internal audit and control mechanisms, MIS and so on. The Microfinance India Social Performance Report is an initiative to comprehensively document the efforts of MFIs and other players to better manage and report on the social performance based on some field evidence. The session will review the findings of this report and discuss the process and progress of deeper internalization of SPM within the sectoral practice and highlight avenues for the way forward.

Moderator:

• Prashant Thakker, Global Business Head – Microfinance, Standard Chartered

Presenter:

• Girija Srinivasan, Editor, Microfinance India SPM report

Discussants:

• David Gibbons, Founder and Chairman, Cashpor Microcredit
• Jeff Toohig, Steering Committee member, Social Performance Task Force
• Vishal Mehta, Co-founder and Managing Director, Lok Capital
• Samit Ghosh, Managing Director, Ujjivan Financial Services

It is recognised that poor households will deposit their surplus capital in financial institutions if the institutions are appropriately structured and offer the clients savings products that meet their specific needs. The informal savings options do not offer a combination of security of funds, easy and immediate access to liquidity and positive real return. Access to secure savings services could enable those with low-incomes to smoothen their consumption over time. If demand-oriented deposit facilities are embedded in appropriate institutional settings, they may achieve a level of outreach and impact that the credit-only facilities cannot achieve. This session will showcase the initiatives, innovations and efforts of some institutions including community based organizations in offering demand oriented savings services to their clients. These experiences should inform and influence other stakeholders to also develop appropriate savings products for the poor and nudge the policy makers to recognize the need and significance for greater focus on appropriate avenues for the poor to save.

Moderator:

• Dr Detlev Holloh, Programme Coordinator, GIZ - NABARD Rural Financial Institutions Program, GiZ

Discussants

• Ajay Mitra, Managing Director, India and Middle East, World Gold Council
• A Praveen Reddy, MLA, Mulkanoor Cooperative Rural Bank and Marketing Society Ltd
• H P Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Satin Creditcare Network Ltd
• Jayshree Vyas, Managing Director, SEWA Bank
• Ratnakar Shetty, General Manager, Bajpe Vyavasaya Seva Sahakari Bank (PACS)

Community based microfinance models have been promoted by both non government and government agencies with varying levels of success and scale in many parts of the country. These models commonly have the advantage of being able to offer savings services to their members in addition to credit and insurance, and fundamentally have higher acceptance among members/clients, but have been limited in scale of outreach and hence remained an ‘alternative’ model. During the last 14 months, it has been observed that community institutions with strong member and savings model have been able to sustain and grow. The panel will discuss the opportunities presented in the current scenario for community microfinance to become one of the mainstream approaches and the strategies that can enable promotion of strong sustainable institutions.

Moderator:

• C S Reddy, CEO, APMAS

Discussants:

• Devilal Vyas, Managing Director, PEDO
• Narender Kande, Consultant
• Dr. Sudha Varghese, Narigunjan
• P Mohanaiah, CGM, NABARD, Hyderabad Regional Office
• Sampath Kumar, IAS, CEO, Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP), UP

The Unique Identification number (UID), a path breaking initiative of the Government of India, which identifies individuals uniquely on the basis of their demographic information and biometrics will give individuals the means to clearly establish their identity to public and private agencies across the country. It will also create an opportunity to address the existing limitations in financial inclusion. The UID can help poor residents easily establish their identity to banks. As a result, banks are expected to scale up their branch-less banking deployments and reach out to a wider population at lower cost. The Chairman, UID will share the challenges of designing this large national initiative, highlight its advantages and throw light on the specific details of the potential for the UID to support and enhance financial inclusion through banks.

Facilitator

• Stephen Rasmussen, Head Technology Centre, CGAP

Lead Presenter

• Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)

It is estimated that only about 40% of the country’s population have bank accounts. Despite the government ownership of over 70% of the banking sector, despite priority sector stipulations by the Reserve Bank and despite an extensive branch network, large population in the country remains outside the ambit of formal banking. The Reserve Bank of India is keen on achieving 100% financial inclusion for sustaining equitable and inclusive growth. The government this year announced a nation-wide programme called Swabhimaan which focuses on opening of bank accounts, provide need based credit and remittance services and promote financial literacy in rural areas. Banks are implementing their financial inclusion strategies including innovations on the Business correspondent model and are being closely monitored by the RBI. The Unique ID project has potential for banks to upscale their inclusion plans at low costs. This session will bring together the diverse perspectives of the government, the banks and BCs on the challenge of achieving financial inclusion and will seek to build convergence on what more needs to be done in terms of efforts and initiatives to address the huge challenge of achieving 100% financial inclusion.

Moderator

• R.Bhaskaran, CEO, Indian Institute of Banking and Finance

Speakers

• Umesh Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Financial Services
• A.P. Singh, Deputy Director General, UIDAI
• Tushar Vikram, Managing Director, Head of Financial Institution Group & Micro Finance-India & Nepal Citibank N.A.
• Ravi Menon, Head of Strategy, HSBC India
• Usha Ananthasubramanian, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank
• Manish Khera, Chief Executive Officer, FINO

Self Help Groups have been promoted and linked to banks for financing through NABARD’s Bank linkage programme. Although the SHG programme has been existence for 20 years, banks continue to remain hesitant in serious lending to these SHGs. Per capita loan sizes remain small, processing of these loans is slow and protracted and provision of second and third loans continue to be difficult. Banks seem to have become more attracted to bulk loans to MFIs to meet their priority sector obligations. Given that the Government of India has launched a major new poverty reduction programme-NRLM, which will result in formation of a large number of SHGs and their federations, there is a certain anxiety on the need for greater flow of debt to SHGs leading to deliberations on setting up new structures for this purpose. While a cooperative bank was set up in AP in September this year to offer services exclusively to women SHGs, the Rural Development ministry at the centre is reportedly planning to set up a dedicated national bank. This session aims to review the issues in the SHG bank linkage system, and discuss the opportunities and possible options for funding a large and growing numbers of Self Help Groups. The session will debate on the need for setting up alternate SHG financing structures versus revitalizing the existing institutional infrastructure for SHG lending.

Moderator:

• N. Srinivasan, Author, State of the Sector Report

Lead Presenter

• B. Rajsekhar, CEO, SERP

Speakers:

• Biswajit Sen, Rural Development Specialist, World Bank
• Kalpana Sankar, CEO, Hand in Hand
• S L Kumbhare, CGM, MCID, NABARD
• J. K. Sinha, CGM, State Bank of India

The role of research in informing the sector on critical issues with evidence based analysis is always critical. This session will discuss findings of two recent studies that aimed to understand how the lives of the poor in Andhra Pradesh have been affected by the unavailability of microfinance services over the last year. The first study, a follow up to the Centre for Microfinance’s 2009 "Access to Finance in Rural Andhra Pradesh" report, focuses on understanding how change in access to finance has affected the households’ indebtedness levels, and how it has influenced households’ ability of to manage their personal and business finances. The second study, carried out by Microsave, examines the impact of the crisis on borrowers by collating client experiences, opinions and needs so as to help policy makers and key actors to devise solutions suited to client requirements. The panel will discuss the implications of findings of the two research studies and draw conclusions on the post AP crisis and its implications for the microfinance sector in India.

Moderator

• Dr Syed Hashemi, Founder and Director, BRAC Development Institute Presenter
• Santadarshan Sandhu, Centre for Microfinance (IFMR)
• Chris Murdoch, CEO, 4B Serve

Discussants

• Dr Rajesh Shukla, Senior Researcher
• Dr Shamika Ravi, Assistant Professor, Indian School of Business
• Suresh Krishna, Managing Director, Grameen Koota

One of the key factors that precipitated the A P crisis was the accusation that MFIs were employing coercive measures with clients, were not transparent in their pricing and largely profiteering from the poor. While for several years, there has been a growing concern on the issues of client protection, the A P crisis significantly helped in exacerbating the issue. Since the AP Ordinance in October 2010, the efforts in the sector towards ensuring client protection have gained primacy. The industry associations Sa-dhan and MFIN have developed their own Codes of Conduct (CoCs), but its compliance has been a major issue. In recent months, through an IFC effort, a Responsible Finance Forum has been instituted which has been working on harmonizing the two COCs. The Codes go beyond client protection and incorporate standards for governance, staff and recruitment policies, data sharing etc. SIDBI has been conducting Code of Conduct assessments of MFIs as a pre-requisite for lending, thereby emphasizing the importance of adherence to code by the institutions. The panel will discuss the next steps towards supporting translation of the codes and principles into practice including building awareness and capacities of MFIs to enforce CoC, raising awareness of clients of their rights and responsibilities, uniformity in compliance assessment, consequences of non-compliance, role of investors and other stakeholders etc., drawing from good examples in India and globally both within the microfinance industry and in the mainstream.

Moderator:

• Jennifer Isern, Regional Business Line Leader, Access to Finance Advisory, South Asia, International Finance Corporation

Discussants

• N Raman, Executive Director, SIDBI
• Isabelle Barres, Campaign Director, SMART Campaign
• Jayshree Vyas, Managing Director, SEWA Bank
• Geeta Dutta Goel, Director, Microfinance, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF)
• P.A. Krishnamoorthy, India Project Manager, Consumer Protection and Sustainable Consumption in India, GiZ*
• Shubhankar Sengupta, Arohan Financial Services

Although access to financial services is undeniably important to poor families, it is insufficient on its own to address the multi-dimensional challenges of poverty. Ill health and the inability to access health care are key factors both leading to and resulting from poverty and the financial and time costs of illness and seeking treatment represent a large burden on poor households. This session will reflect on the rationale for linking health and microfinance, review practical examples of the types of health products and services MFIs can offer, discuss challenges and opportunities and the business case for adding health protection products and services for MFIs.

Moderator

• D S K Rao, Asia Regional Organizer, Microcredit Summit Campaign

Discussants

• Priya Anant, Consultant, ACCESS Health International
• C.S. Ghosh, Managing Director, Bandhan Financial Services
• David Gibbons, Cashpor Microfinance
• K Paul Thomas, Managing Director, ESAF
• Amir U. Khan, Deputy Director, Strategy, Planning and Management, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

In the present context, with the microfinance institutions under question on their intent and delivery practices, regulatory restrictions on interest rates and margins and on-lending resources difficult to raise, the industry needs to innovate and learn from other business models to diversify and deliver on range of services. The new models being developed and scaled up include innovations in the areas of diversification in products and services, efficient delivery channels that enable higher outreach including use of better technology, managing risks, funding mechanisms etc. This session will look at some models being implemented in India and regionally, and compile lessons learnt for replication and further research and development.

Moderator

• Stephen Rasmussen, Head Technology Centre, CGAP

Discussants

• S G Anil Kumar, CEO, IFMR Rural Finance and Sr Vice President, IFMR Trust
• Manish Khera, Chief Executive Officer, FINO
• Ramakrishna NK, Co-Founder and CEO, Rang De.org
• Chandni Ohri, CEO, Grameen Foundation India

While in the last 20 years, the sector has largely grown without any composite regulatory framework, with the expectation that this growth should be facilitated through self regulation mechanism. Given the ambiguities that existed in terms of what was prudent within practice, since 2005, there has been a demand from the sector for the need for a comprehensive regulation for the sector for more orderly and legitimized growth. However, while the regulation in microfinance till recently was more prudential in character and did not cover the non-NBFC forms of institutions, in the guidelines issued in May 2011, RBI has clearly defined the new basis for its regulation of microfinance and there is a Microfinance Regulation bill pending in Parliament for enactment. The RBI regulations focus on avoidance of excessive debt, multiple lending, lending to poor clients, suitable loan terms, reasonable rates of interest, acceptable behavior of staff as also prudential aspects relating to regulatory capital, asset classification and provisioning. The Government of India has drafted a new microfinance bill to be introduced in the parliament for enactment in to law. This session will deliberate on the potential impact of regulation on the sector’s growth on the current context and the role of self regulation, while drawing on experiences from other countries.

Moderator

• Dr. Rajiv Lall, Managing Director & CEO, Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd. (IDFC) and Founder & Chairman, LOK Capital.

Discussants

• Hassan Zaman, Senior Economic Adviser to the Governor, Bangladesh Bank
• Kate Mckee, Senior Advisor, CGAP
• P.N. Vasudevan, Managing Director, Equitas Microfinance India Pvt. Ltd.
• Vijay Mahajan, Founder and Chairman, BASIX group

• Jairam Ramesh, Hon’ble Rural Development Minister, Government of India
• H R Khan, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
• Brij Mohan, Chairman, ACCESS Development Services
• Vipin Sharma, CEO, ACCESS Development Services