...assets) to offer, they are often excluded from traditional financial markets. In addition, transactions costs are often high relative to the small loans typically...access to banking services can be very difficult: in the mountains of Nepal people must walk six hours to and from the nearest bank branch at an opportunity...

...their special features, often serve poor people badly. . . . Since poor people often have ins'fficient traditional forms of collateral (such as physical...difficult." WORLD BANK, WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT, 2000-2001 "The area of financial syltem reg'lation and organization will increasingly be foc'sed on the following...