Microfinance au Nord : Un effet de mode importé du Sud ?

New micro-finance initiatives are emerging in countries with, however, highly developed banking and financial markets. In the North, micro-finance is considered as a new channel to solve the financing constraint of micro enterprises and to provide the means of their own development. Consequently, it leads us to explore the applicability of mechanisms from the South. This South-North learning involves analysing the contextual differences that imply that both objectives and tools might not be exactly the same. We are defending the thesis according which micro-finance institutions may have a role to play as a active employment and pro-entrepreneurship policies, provided that they come within the framework of a local development strategy. Three suggestions of action are approached in order to support the development of micro-finance institutions in this particular context.