Institutionalising Microfinance in Bangladesh: Players, Games

Lila Rashid's 'Institutionalising Microfinance in Bangladesh: Players, Games' examines the dramatic transformation of the country's rural financial market over the past three decades, now largely dominated by microfinance institutions. The book traces the government's regulatory journey, beginning with its support for Grameen Bank in 1983, the nation's first microfinance bank. It then follows the creation of the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) in 2006, which addressed the regulatory needs of NGO-led microfinance activities, twenty-three years after the initial response to Grameen. The study analyzes the immense impact of these regulations, their amendments, and supplementary rules on the institutionalization of the sector.

Adopting an institutional approach and utilizing a basic IAD (Institutional Analysis and Development) framework, Rashid analyzes historical data gathered from documents, interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys. The book investigates the regulatory role of the government, its background and purpose, and the implementation procedures of state agencies like Bangladesh Bank and the MRA. The central finding suggests that the state's regulatory response is primarily driven by the government's political views, with regulating agencies playing a limited independent role in the evolution of microfinance institutions in Bangladesh.