Informal Borrowing and Lending in Rural Finance

The world is full of financial hardship, and American society possesses a great deal of controversy concerning lending. Unfortunately, short term lending, such as payday loans or title loans, creates a structural void within American society. According to Wikipedia, “Structural inequality is defined as a condition where one category of people are attributed an unequal status in relation to other categories of people” (wilipedia.com). When working class Americans apply for a payday, the unequal status between upper and middle class possess a bigger separation financially. The never-ending process of a short term financial fix becomes lifelong debt. Thus, middle class society becomes lower class society. Eventually, working class society will struggle to say above the poverty line. In addition to an imbalance in society classes, short term lending targets consumers who life paycheck to paycheck. In Rigging the Game by Michael Schwalbe, the author explains the reproduction of inequalities. Schwalbe discusses the different kinds of capitals human, social, and cultural (10). The three capitals unknowingly shape Americans social system. Many businesses capitalize on these capitals knowing no laws or regulation exists to stop them from capitalizing on individuals who no faults of their own were born into these unfair capitals. As a result, short term lenders possess the ability to have extremely high interest rates and outrageous fine print penalties because there is little

The main problem for low income households and those that have had credit problems in the past, are they may be financially excluded from mainstream financial products such as bank accounts, and will have to pay higher rates for services like utility bills as they can’t pay by direct debit. When these types of households needs to

Asymmetric information in lending is a huge risk. When there is misinformation from a lender to a borrower, this can cause a few different problems to arise; for example misinformation about job security or credit history from a borrower to a lender can result in late or missed payments, fraudulent spending of the money lent or the lending amount to be turned as bad debt. Specialization is a tool used for risk management. Specialization in lending helps reduce risk by gathering valuable and accurate information about the borrower. It

people's need for extra funding has led to the extension of credit to large segments of the population who were previously deemed unqualified. However, some lenders have tried

In both developing and emerging economies, microfinance has vastly and increasingly been seen as one of the most important means for enhancing the lives of the poor and therefore a major tool for economic and social development mostly in rural areas. Lately, contrary to this widespread belief, critics have raised eyebrows against this growing popularity of microfinance as a major tool for enhancing economic development. Contrary to belief, they are of the opinion that microfinance is a ‘make-belief’ that is hindering economic and social development rather than enhancing it.

It is also important to recognize how many low-income families are unable to escape poverty due to the lack of protection from the hidden implicit fees or “poverty taxes” that burden those struggling financially. Many of these costs stem from the practices of payday lenders who capitalize on the impoverished and their inability to procure loans from traditional banks. When needy individuals possess poor credit scores or lack ample savings, their inadequate financial histories prevent them from taking out loans from conventional banking institutions. Consequently, when a situation arises where an immediate credit-blind loan is required, they are forced to turn to these independently run subprime lenders and their excessively high interest rates.

269). There is no easy way for those with little money to begin earning interest on savings or obtain loans with reasonable interest rates: the banking community is failing the poorest people (Banerjee & Duflo, 2012, p. 269). Also, Banerjee and Duflo (2012) assert that medical and agricultural insurance are not favored by the poor in spite of the fact that they could benefit greatly from such products (269). Their proposed solutions come in the form of microcredit (to provide access to more reasonable loans), electronic money transfer systems (to reduce the fixed costs of saving), and rewarding people for making good financial decisions (either via markets or the government if needed) (Banerjee & Duflo, 2012, p. 270). The incentives could even be something unrelated, such as bed nets, which then help the recipients in more than one way (Banerjee & Duflo, 2012, p. 270). This would need to be coupled with government regulation so that unscrupulous individuals wouldn’t have a way to easily game the system (Banerjee & Duflo, 2012, p. 270).

In the financing market, there is an important need to balance the powers between lenders and borrowers. In this market, the borrowers are in a relatively weak position to negotiate the interest rates of their loans, being the party in need. Lenders, in accordance to the law of supply and demand, can strategically withhold money supply to increase demand and interest rates. Historically, government regulators ensured, through usury laws, that consumers were protected against financial predators (Bowsher, 1974). However, the current trend in the financing market has moved steadily towards loosening the usury laws and allowing the markets to dictate interest rates. This paper will attempt to understand this trend through a series of six questions and answers.

The logic of poor peoples purchases as they attempt to meet a wealth image they cannot obtain is obscene. It is impossible to provide for their families and live a rich lifestyle under little earnings. Stated by Isabel Sawhill, “None of this means that providing lower-income families with more money is necessarily a bad thing” (Sawhill). The political system works in a matter to benefit poor families with money they do not earn. Poor individuals complain about being poor while it is quite simple to overcome poverty and rely on a career. Pursuing a career and presenting a humble attitude can help with overcoming poverty and presenting a better reputation. Poor individuals need to visualize more than spending money on unnecessary items, work to flip their money without relying on the government, and be themselves not a false image.

* Not only do borrowing and lending rates differ due to taxes and transaction costs, but some individuals are screened out of legitimate credit markets altogether due to informational asymmetries

Peer to Peer lending is a unique method that links borrowers and lenders relatively quick and inexpensive without financial intermediaries. With technological advances in recent years including the boom of electronic money, transactions in peer to peer lending programs have become more and more commonly used around the globe. This type of financial service carries both advantages (peer to peer communities have a quick and easy online application process for both lenders and borrowers (Schneider 2008)) and disadvantages (potential exposure to more risk) for those lending their funds as well as people taking out these loans.

At the beginning when Muhammad Yunus first introduced the idea of lending money to the poor people, there was a lot of apprehensiveness and skepticism among conventional banks because poor people

As technology improves, the wide use of “hard information”, such as the borrower’s credit history, reduces informational asymmetries. Therefore, long-distance small business lending is easier (Frame, Srinivasan, \& Woosley, 2001; Petersen \& Rajan, 2002). However, even with the use of credit score data, collecting ``soft information" still helps local lenders control risks to avoid delinquency (DeYoung, Glennon, \& Nigro, 2008) and provides informational advances in offering more favorable rates (Agarwal \& Hauswald, 2010).

Many point out that P2P lending can pose a significant threat to traditional financial and banking institutions because of the benefits that it presents. These include: comparably low interest margins due to their low managerial costs and because the platforms do not themselves assume any risk vulnerability; the potential to make loans to customers who may have been rejected for loans by established banks; and

The generation of self-employment in non-farm activities requires investment in working capital. However, at low levels of income, the accumulation of such capital may be difficult. Under such circumstances, loans, by increasing family income, can help the poor to accumulate their own capital and invest in employment-generating activities (Hossain, 1988). Commercial banks and other formal institutions fail to cater for the credit needs of smallholders, however, mainly due to their lending terms and conditions. It is generally the rules and regulations of the formal financial institutions that have created the myth that the poor are not bankable, and since they can’t afford the required collateral, they are considered uncreditworthy (Adera, 1995). Hence despite efforts to overcome the widespread lack of financial services, especially among smallholders in developing countries, and the expansion of credit in the rural areas of these countries, the majority still have only limited access to bank services to support their private initiatives (Braverman and Guasch, 1986). In the recent past, there has been an increased tendency to fund credit programmes in the developing countries aimed at small-scale enterprises. In Kenya, despite emphasis on increasing the availability of credit to small and microenterprises (SMEs), access to credit by such enterprises remains one of the major constraints they face. A 1995 survey of small and