Effects of regulatory changes in microcredit on the financial and social performance of Brazilian credit unions

ABSTRACT This study investigates whether the performance of credit unions that offer microcredit in Brazil was affected by the advent of Crescer - the National Microcredit Program. This research fills a gap in the literature because few papers investigate credit unions that work with microcredit and also the effects of governmental interventions related to microcredit operations. Studies of this type may help evaluate the impact of governmental interventions on the performance of the institutions that are directly or indirectly affected. Our results add to the debate about microcredit and about the inclusion of credit unions in this market. In particular, our evidence may influence the design of public policies and the strategies of microfinance institutions, which typically combine economic and social objectives. Based on the literature, we calculate fifteen indicators for each credit union, related to their financial and social performance. The inferences are based on the implementation of the difference in differences estimator using the advent of Crescer, in 2011, as the exogenous event of interest and including in the control group the credit unions that did not provide microcredit loans throughout the sample period. This research presents evidence that the volume of clients and microcredit operations performed by Brazilian credit unions was positively affected by regulatory changes that took place in 2011, consistently with the objectives of the governmental intervention. The evidence also suggests that the governmental intervention did not harm the financial sustainability of the credit unions. The main changes are: a substantial reduction of interest rates and transaction costs, the implementation of subsidies to participants in the program, and a push for public banks to enhance their supply of productive and oriented microcredit.

摘要 本研究旨在探究巴西开展小额信贷业务的信用合作社的经营绩效，是否受巴西全国小额信贷项目Crescer（National Microcredit Program）推出的影响。本研究填补了相关学术文献的空白——目前鲜有文献同时聚焦于经营小额信贷业务的信用合作社，以及与小额信贷运营相关的政府干预措施所产生的效应。此类研究有助于评估政府干预对直接或间接受其影响的金融机构经营绩效的影响。本研究结果可为小额信贷领域以及信用合作社纳入该市场的相关讨论提供补充。具体而言，本研究结论可对公共政策的设计以及小额信贷机构的战略制定产生影响，而这类机构通常兼具经济与社会双重目标。基于现有文献，我们为每家信用合作社计算了15项指标，涵盖其财务绩效与社会绩效两个维度。本研究的推断基于双重差分估计量方法：以2011年Crescer项目的推出作为本次关注的外生政策冲击事件，并将样本期内始终未提供小额信贷的信用合作社纳入对照组。本研究的结果表明，2011年出台的监管改革对巴西信用合作社的客户规模与小额信贷业务量产生了正向影响，与此次政府干预的既定目标相一致。同时，研究证据显示，此次政府干预并未损害信用合作社的财务可持续性。此次监管改革的主要变化包括：大幅降低贷款利率与交易成本、为项目参与主体提供补贴、推动公共银行加大生产性定向小额信贷的供给力度。