Kashf Foundation | MFIs in Pakistan

Mission:

To provide cost effective microfinance services to poor women and enhance their economic role, decision making capacity and increase in their income

Background and Main Challenges:

The challenges faced by Kashf are: 1) Sustaining growth (current year 189%) 2) Human resources 3) Relationship with commercial banks

Address:

19 Aibak Block New Garden Town

Lahore

Pakistan

Phone:

92 42 5847812

Fax:

92 42 5847816

Email:

kashf [at] nexling [dot] net [dot] pk

Website:

www.kashf.org

Main Funding Sources:

Grants

Loans

Products and Services:

Loans

Voluntary Savings

Insurance

Training and Consulting

Looking for (Investment Types):

Donations

Guarantees

Capacity Building Grants

Other Investment

Equity investments

% Operations Comprised by MF:

91 - 100

Date established:

Jan 1 1996

FYE:

30-Jun

Current Legal Status:

NGO

Regulated:

yes

Social Performance Profile


+ Mission specifics
+ Target markets (ranked by importance)
Women	1
Clients living in urban areas	2
+ Development goals (ranked by importance)
Increased access to financial services	1
Gender equality and women's empowerment	2
Poverty reduction	3
Growth of existing businesses	4
Development of start-up enterprises	5
Employment generation	6
+ Poverty targets
Poor clients
Low income clients
+ Governance
Has trained members of its board on social performance management
Has a formal board committee that monitors social performance
+ Range of products and services
+ Financial products and services offered
+ Credit products offered
Microcredit loans for microenterprises
+ Savings products offered
+ Compulsory insurance products required
Compulsory credit life insurance
+ Voluntary insurance products offered
+ Other financial products and services offered
Mobile banking services
Savings facilitation services
+ Non-financial services offered
+ Enterprise services offered
Enterprise skills development
Business development services
+ Education services offered
Financial literacy education
+ Health services offered
+ Women's empowerment services offered
Leadership training for women
Women's rights education/gender issues training

+ Products and services targeting the poor
Products and services specifically designed to target the poor:
+ Social responsibility to clients
+ Client protection principles in use
The loan approval process requires evaluation of borrower repayment capacity and loan affordability. Loan approval does not rely solely on guarantees (whether peer guarantees, co-signers or collateral) as a substitute for good capacity analysis.
Internal audits check household debt exposure, lending practices that violate procedures including unauthorized re-financing, multiple borrowers or co-signers per household, and other practices that could increase indebtedness.
Productivity targets and incentive systems value portfolio quality at least as highly as other factors, such as disbursement or customer growth. Growth is rewarded only if portfolio quality is high.
Prices, terms and conditions of all financial products are fully disclosed to the customer prior to sale, including interest charges, insurance premiums, minimum balances, all fees, penalties, linked products, third party fees, and whether these can change over time.
Staff is trained to communicate effectively with all customers, ensuring that they understand the product, the terms of the contract, their rights and obligations. Communications techniques address literacy limitations (e.g. reading contracts out loud, materials in local languages).
Acceptable and unacceptable debt collection practices are clearly spelled out in a code of ethics, book of staff rules or debt collection manual.
The organization's corporate culture values and rewards high standards of ethical behavior and customer service.
A mechanism to handle customer complaints is in place, has dedicated staff resources, and is actively used. (Suggestion boxes alone are generally not considered adequate.)
Customers know how their information will be used. Staff explains how data will be used and seeks permission for use.
+ Cost of services to clients
+ Social responsibility to staff
+ Human resources
Transparency on salary (a clear salary scale based upon market salaries)
Benefits (medical insurance, pension contribution)
Protection at work (safety, anti-harassment)
Equality (anti-discrimination, equal pay for men and women with equivalent skill levels)
+ Basis of staff incentives related to social performance
Client retention/drop-out rate
Portfolio quality
+ Social responsibility to the environment
This institution identifies enterprises with environmental risk
+ Poverty measurement tools in use