This paper examines the case of the Philippines to examine the probability of the successful replication of the Grameen approach.
The paper discusses:
* The importance of norms in microfinance;
* Regulation and supervision as key interrelated issues;
* The definition of social capital as the shared normative system of an organization;
* Measurement of the value of social capital in microfinance;
* Three assessment criteria for the value of social capital in microfinance institutions (MFIs) viability, sustainability and outreach;
* The transition from financial repression as negative social capital deregulation and the mobilization of positive social capital in the Philippines;
* The pitfalls of deregulation;
* Prudential regulation and supervision in the Philippines.
It then examines:
* The success of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and its self-regulated normative framework;
* The possibility of effective replication of the Grameen model in other countries;
* Grameen replicators in the Philippines, their struggle for donor funds and viability;
* Two case studies of successful Grameen replicators in the Philippines.
The paper concludes that Grameen replicators are not always sustainable and do not reach the poor in sufficient numbers; however, successful replicators follow certain sound practices that are the hard core social capital of the original Grameen approach.
