Placement and outreach of group-based credit organizations: The cases of ASA, BRAC, and PROSHIKA in Bangladesh

Abstract

The implicit but widespread assumption regarding nongovernmental financial institutions in Bangladesh has been that they are indeed placed in special poverty-stricken areas. Is this assumption valid? If not, what factors affect programs placement acros communities? Using thana-level data to analyze the geographic placement of three credit programs in Bangladesh, this paper provides evidence that branches tend to be located in poor pockets of relatively well-developed areas than in remoter, less developed regions. Client density of established branches does not exhibit such a feature and actually tends to be better in less advantageous locations.