Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, has a highly differentiated micro- and rural finance sector which has evolved over more than a century. Islamic finance has emerged in 1991, comprising Islamic commercial banks and banking units, rural banks, and financial cooperatives. In this study we...

Indonesia is a country with a deregulated policy environment in which microfinance institutions (MFIs) abound. Between 1970 and 1993 poverty has been drastically reduced from 60% to 14%. Three factors have been instrumental: explicit government policies, sustained economic growth and, since...

The case of BRI is evidence that, in a deregulated policy environment, the microfinance section of a government-owned bank can (a) be transformed into a highly profitable, self-reliant financial intermediary; and (b) turn into a major microfinance provider, offering carefully crafted...