Overview

The “Macro Module” provides users with social, political and economic information on a given country as well as market and financial data.

The “Country Profile” section lists 30 indicators describing social, political and economic conditions and provides an overview of the situation in a country in comparison with regional and world benchmarks. The “Social Context” includes population data as well as poverty and inequality indicators. The “Political Context” covers broad topics related to political stability, rule of law, corruption and other political metrics. The “Economic Context” contains data on GDP growth and composition, import and export commodities and partners, FDIs, and remittances. In addition to this quantitative data, key qualitative analysis is updated periodically.

The “Macro Module” provides users with social, political and economic information on a given country as well as market and financial data.

The “Financial Market” section monitors local financial markets on five core dimensions: Country Rating, Banking Sector, Currency Market, Interest Rate Market, Stock Market.  Each dimension includes key indicators on these dimensions, providing complementary information to the Country Profile in order to allow investors to assess the general macro-environment in which microfinance institutions are operating.

The “MesoModule” describes the investment framework for a given country. By focusing on investment regulation and funding conditions in the microfinance sector, this module sheds light on barriers to foreign investment and the challenges/opportunities faced by investors to enter a given market.

The “Investment Regulation” section gives an insight into a country’s investment regulatory framework and foreign investment laws and comprises four areas of analysis. The “Investment Climate” section provides an overview of aspects such as investment, double taxation treaties, and openness to foreign investment. The “Restrictions” to foreign investment section describes the main barriers in the market (e.g. cap on interest rates, prohibition of lending instruments, restrictions on interest repatriation or currency exchange). In addition, the specific “Requirements” that investors have to meet in order to invest in a country (e.g. reserve obligations, registration, and taxation) and the protection level that foreign investors benefit from is also detailed.

The “Meso Module” describes the investment framework for a given country. By focusing on investment regulation and funding conditions in the microfinance sector, this module sheds light on barriers to foreign investment and the challenges/opportunities faced by investors to enter a given market.

The “Funding Conditions” section provides key data on a country’s microfinance investment market. The section analyses: The level of MFI funding demand (“Demand Analysis”), MFI funding structure and leverage (“Funding Segmentation”), Investor characteristics (“Investor Profile”), Investment conditions such as volume, maturity, currency, guarantee required, and interest rate (“Yield Curves”). For instance, Yield Curves – graph on the left – allow investors to benchmark the pricing of fixed income transactions. It calculates the average interest rate and the spread over a risk ee rate based on predefined criteria such as the investment currency and/or credit risk.

 

The “Micro Module” focuses on the microfinance market of a given country and provides users with key data on the quality of the industry environment as well as market structure, performance, and risks.

The “Industry Environment” section describes policies, regulations, and practices affecting the development of a given microfinance market. The analysis shows to which degree the industry environment is favorable to the provision of microfinance services. The government’s strategy and agenda and the microfinance regulatory framework are evaluated, both for supervised and non-supervised MFIs. A final section is dedicated to the assessment of the main industry practices (in terms of accounting and reporting standards for instance) and organizations (e.g. microfinance association, credit bureau).

The “Micro Module” focuses on the microfinance market of a given country and provides users with key data on the quality of the industry environment as well as market structure, performance, and risks.

The “Microfinance Market” section provides up-to-date data and trend analysis on a given market. It describes in-depth analysis of current developments and evaluates potential investment opportunities and business risks. Five sub-menus are available, each of them focusing on specific areas: Client Demand (market size, untapped demand and potential growth, risk of over-indebtedness), Competition (number of actors, size and structure), Performance (benchmark key indicators, Sym50), Risk Ratings (MFI credit risk distribution), Sector Correlation (comparison to the economic situation and the banking sector).

 

Sym50 is a benchmark compiling the key indicators of the 50 MFIs that Symbiotics works with most frequently. Indicators represent an average of the performance of the 50 MFIs, with the pool being adjusted monthly by the Symbiotics Research & Advisory team based on outstanding investment volumes. Apex entities and non-specialized banks are excluded from the pool. Our clients use Sym50 to benchmark their MFIs against the investment opportunities currently available. As opposed to a comprehensive industry benchmark, Sym50 is rather a tool that can be used by foreign investors to target attractive markets from a credit risk, country risk, interest rate risk, and currency risk perspective. Sym50 information for the past 24 months is available both in graphical and data series formats.

Yield Curves are used by clients as a pricing benchmark for fixed income transactions. The curve data points are composed of all senior unsecured loans to investment grade MFIs (not including country risk) denominated in U.S. dollars, for maturities of 12 to 36 months. Yield Curves are also available for more restricted geographic zones or different credit risk profiles, currencies, and maturities.

The Credit Risk Assessment includes two levels of risk information. At the MFI level, risk assessment is based on Symbiotics’ internal risk methodology. The Credit Risk Assessment aggregates individual analysis and provides average SYM 50 and regional risk. At the country level, a breakdown of country risk, based on external sources, is available by region.