New global visions of microfinance: The construction of markets from indicators

Many of the so-called developing and developed countries world-wide have a long history with microfinance, or the provision of small-size financial services to relatively poor people (Seibel 2005: 1). This chapter focuses on a particular set of changes in microfinance that have taken place across both developing and developed countries in the last few years: the formation of global market structures. More specifically, these structures are analysed here to illuminate the ways in which international standard-setting bodies attempt to construct global markets from indicators. If the visions of these groups of actors were to be achieved, the transformation of the microfinance sectors world-wide would be massive: countless small-size financial services to the poor all over the globe would be largely driven by a market that represents these local realities in a new information world that is highly self-contained. The complex and dynamic world of microfinance would be compressed into a few inches of computer screen. Based on these observable efforts of the standard-setters, this chapter makes the following case: a new global electronic market for microfinance is in the making and is the product of the long-term cultural and historical formation of ‘world society’. The present chapter discusses both the benefits and downsides of this trend.