Cooperative banks' (CBs) customers have been traditionally described as small or medium firms with poor performance working at local level. Moreover, they are usually involved in tertiary sector of industry or in agriculture and are financed by several sources (i.e., not just banks). This paper...

Using a stochastic frontier approach, we analyse the imposition of financial sustainability requirement on the traditional social mission of microfinance – outreach to the poor. We also address whether the way ownership is organised and practiced affects the costs of microfinance delivery....