The International Growth Centre at the London School of Economics (LSE) is an institution that offers independent advice on economic growth to governments of developing countries. Bringing top policy-makers and researchers together, it endeavors to support policymaking with thorough research evidence as the foundation.

As a part of its growth initiative the IGC recently convened “Growth Week” between 19th to 21st September at LSE, a 3-day conference which brought together a diverse set of policy-makers and researchers from Africa & South Asia. Viral Acharya organized the session on Finance, Colin Mayer chaired the part on Macrofinance and Greg Fischer chaired the part on Mobile Banking. The focus of the session was on identifying areas of academic research on policy issues that practitioners and policymakers are seeking to address in relation to finance in developing countries and emerging markets.

Kshama Fernandes represented IFMR Trust and participated on the panel on “Ideas for growth: Macro Finance” along with Dr. Subir Gokarn, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India & Ms. Shyamala Gopinath, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India.

Talking about the past, present and future role of commercial banks in India, Dr. Gokarn spoke of the efficiencies and inefficiencies of the system and the challenges they pose in the present context. While suggesting that there was a need to build on the existing penetration of banks, banks would continue to remain the principal channel of intermediation as far as lending is concerned.  However other financial intermediaries could have a significant role to play in the financial inclusion space by developing business models that were designed to address the specific needs of their customers.

In her presentation, Ms. Gopinath pointed out that while financial innovation definitely does have an impact on growth, it needs a precise framework to function in the desired manner. The basic framework required was:

• Reasonable sophistication of participants (Financial literacy)
• Sound legal framework for dispute resolution
• Robust market infrastructure
• Reasonably liquid and deep cash market
• Financial Stability

Kshama Fernandes presented the Financial Systems Design framework based on a bottom-up approach with high quality origination, orderly risk transmission and robust risk aggregation as the three pillars of a well-functioning financial system.

The presentation below describes the key issues, the enabling infrastructure and some research questions that were discussed during the session.

The panel was attended by a large number of academics, researchers and some practitioners and generated a lot of discussion and interest on potential areas for future research. The broad areas that came up for research included: Finance and Growth (investment, bank lending, venture capital); Financial Systems and Stability (asset markets, securitization, financial regulation); and Financial Inclusion and Access by the Poor to Financial Services (savings, borrowing, payments).

As a follow-up to the Growth Week and an effort to advance these research areas, there will be a meeting of all academics associated with the Finance Programme of IGC on Tuesday November 15 at the LSE in London.

IFMR Capital recently structured and arranged two Microloan Securitisation transactions – Aether IFMR Capital 2011 involving a single originator Grameen Financial Services Private Limited (Grameen Koota) and MOSEC 7, a multi-originator securitisation transaction involving seven Non-Banking Finance Companies.

Mosec 7

On September 7 2011, IFMR Capital concluded a Rs. 511 million multi-originator microloan securitisation backed by 49,881 microloans originated by seven Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC)-Micro Finance Institutions (MFI), namely Asirvad Microfinance Private Limited, Disha Microfin Pvt. Ltd, Mimoza Enterprises Finance Pvt. Ltd., Satin Creditcare Network Limited , Suryoday Micro Finance Pvt. Limited, SV Creditline Private Limited and Utkarsh Micro Finance Private Limited. IFMR Capital Mosec VII, the SPV, issued two tranches of securities rated by ICRA: 85% senior tranche rated A1-LBBB+ (SO) and Series A2-Unrated.

The senior tranche has been subscribed by a Bank and HNI’s and Junior Tranche by IFMR Capital.

This is the biggest Multi Originator transaction arranged and structured by IFMR Capital involving 7 high quality Originators.

The structure created by IFMR Capital ensures that the incentives of the originator, servicer and the structurer are aligned. While the originators and servicers, provides cash collateral as first loss, the structurer, IFMR Capital, has invested in the subordinated junior tranche. The cash collateral and the subordination of payments to junior tranche in the waterfall mechanism ensure that the senior investor is protected against losses and any first loss is borne by the originators and the second loss by the structurer.

Aether IFMR Capital 2011

The Rs. 239 million single-originator securitisation transaction was completed with Grameen Financial Services Private Ltd also popularly known as Grameen Koota. Aether IFMR Capital 2011, the SPV, issued two tranches of securities backed by 23,108 microloans that were originated by Grameen Koota. Non-Banking Financial Institutions subscribed to the senior ICRA A- rated tranche and IFMR Capital invested in the subordinated ICRA BB+ rated piece.

This is the eighth capital market transaction for Grameen Koota with IFMR Capital.

The originator and servicer, Grameen Koota, provides cash collateral of 10% of the pool principal, while the structurer, IFMR Capital, has invested in the subordinated junior tranche. As in the above transaction, the waterfall mechanism ensures that here, the senior investor is protected against losses up to Rs. 240 million and any first loss is borne by the originator and the second loss by the structurer.

The first IFMR Conference on Financial Systems Design was held at our office in Chennai on Aug 5-6, 2011. The objective of the conference was to engage in an in-depth conversation on the future of the Indian financial system and some of the underlying design challenges being faced in various markets.

In order to retain a functional perspective, the conference was organised into three main sessions for discussion — Origination, Transmission and Aggregation — as three broad buckets of questions and concerns – one involving customers and customer protection issues, the other involving markets and derivatives and the third involving large, nationally important financial institutions and systemic risk concerns.

In the introductory session, Nachiket shared some of his thoughts on the Indian financial system.

The format of the conference allowed for collaborative work and visioning by the participants. Following a lead presentation for each of the main sessions that identified key themes, each table came up with vision statements for that theme which were then shared across the room and discussed. Following the visioning, there was an exercise to identify the pathways for us to get to the desired end-state. These pathways were categorised into Research, Regulation, Innovation and Public Infrastructure.

The conference yielded very rich discussions and the participants identified several interesting issues and priorities for the Indian financial system. In the following weeks, we will share the summary of discussions and identified pathways for each of the three sessions.

The structured finance approach has given MFIs access to a new class of debt investors, thereby reducing over-dependence on traditional sources of funds. This therefore enables risk transfer over a larger gamut of financial institutions and also provides access to mainstream capital market investors. The need for continuous and reliable sources of capital is critical for growth and sustenance in this sector.

Kshama Fernandes of IFMR Capital has recently written an article “A structured finance approach to microfinance” that was published in Securitisation & Structured Finance Handbook 2011/12 by Euromoney Yearbooks, where she explains the structured finance approach to the microfinance asset class in great detail.

“The success and sustainability of the structured finance approach in the microfinance sector depends on the high-quality origination of loans, appropriate incentives for all parties to a transaction and continuous monitoring of the portfolio and originator. Transparency and adequate disclosures ensure that market players act responsibly and the best originators are recognised. Finally, a strong regulatory framework that promotes innovation while ensuring transparent reporting, sufficient accounting mechanisms, prudent exposure limits and effective risk management is critical.”

With lucid explanantions and vivid examples of single originator and multi-originator securitisations, the article is a must read for anyone interested in microfinance.

Click here to download the complete article.

ICRA and CRISIL have upgraded the ratings assigned to the Senior Pass Through Certificates (PTCs) and Assignee Payouts pertaining to three transactions backed by micro loan pool receivables originated by Grama Vidiyal Microfinance Limited (GVMFL) and two transactions backed by micro loan pool receivables – one originated by Satin Creditcare Network Ltd. and one by Janalakshmi Financial Services Private Limited respectively.

ICRA upgrades micro loan pool receivables originated by Grama Vidiyal Microfinance Limited (GVMFL)

The ratings upgrade reflects the good collection performance on the underlying pools so far, and enhanced credit enhancement cover for the rated instruments / payouts over the balance tenure.

The summary of the rating actions taken by ICRA is given below.

In case of all the three aforementioned transactions, the selected pool comprised of unsecured micro loans (less than or equal to Rs. 20,000 each), with low initial tenure of contracts (50 weeks), moderately high initial seasoning and no overdue. Moreover, the pools comprised of General Loans^[2] only.

A brief performance summary for these pools is given below

As can be seen from the table above, the cumulative collection efficiency for all the above-mentioned transactions has been 100% and no delinquencies have been reported in these transactions so far. As a result, no cash collateral has been utilised in these transactions till date. The credit enhancement available in the transactions is sufficient to support the revised rating level.

CRISIL Upgrades micro loan pool receivables originated by Satin Creditcare Network Ltd

# Indicates door-to-door tenure between the issuance date and legal final maturity date; actual tenure will depend on the level of prepayments in the pool, exercise of clean-up call option, and extent of shortfalls

& The Series A1 PTCs are entitled to receive interest on a fortnightly basis. There is an expected schedule for principal repayments for the Series A1 PTCs; however the structure allows for principal payments to be made by the maturity date of the PTCs (ultimate payment structure)

* Credit support for the Series A1 PTCs includes Rs.22.7 million in the form of subordination of cash flows over and above the scheduled payouts promised to the Series A1 PTCs

$ Credit support for the principal repayment on the Series A2 PTCs includes Rs. 8.4 million of subordinated cash flows

CRISIL has upgraded its ratings on the Series A1 and Series A2 PTCs issued by Theta Pioneer IFMR Capital 2011 to ‘P1+(so)’ from ‘P2+(so)’, and to ‘P3+(so)’ from ‘P4(so)’ respectively. The PTCs are backed by microfinance loan receivables originated by Satin Creditcare Network Ltd. The upgrade is driven by strong collection performance together with low overdue level of the pool, which has led to an increase in the cover provided for the PTC payouts by the available credit collateral.

Pool Performance Summary (as per May 23, 2011 payout report)

CRISIL Upgrades micro loan pool receivables originated by Janalakshmi Financial Services Private Limited