A seminar on Vietnam ’s micro finance institutions held in Hanoi on May 16 focused on sustainable interest rates and risk management.

The event was organised by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in collaboration with Switzerland ’s Ministry of the Economy, Tinh thuong One member Liability Limited Micro-finance Institution (TYM) and the Vietnam Micro finance Working Group (MFWG).

It offered an insight into the issues surrounding the application of interest rates in micro-finance institutions.
Through practice and experience, the IFC’s working group concluded that the interest rates of micro-finance institutions were not really higher than other credit institutions and did not adversely affect their customers.

Risk management procedures were also discussed by the experts. Andrew Pospielovsky, an IFC’s consultant, said that managing risks to any financial institution required risk identification, assessment, measurement, reduction, monitoring and evaluation.

Andrew Pospielovsky said the building of risk management culture was something micro-finance institutions had been urgently doing, particularly in the period of transition and growth.

The seminar reflected that micro-finance has been officially recognised in Vietnam and is now part of the national financial system and has contributed towards the country’s economic development.-VNA