The microcredit revolution was to eliminate poverty and quite quickly make financial aid for development unnecessary, whether public, multilateral and bilateral, or that of private foundations. On the one hand, financial gains for lenders and, on the other, the increased income of borrowers, as well as social benefits, such as better schooling for children, the empowerment of women, and healthcare for all, should rapidly have been realised. So many unkept promises. The new book from Professor Jean-Michel Servet, The Real Microcredit Revolution, looks at why.

A different revolution occurred. One involving the development of “financialisation” on a global scale and the need for financial inclusion. It materialised as a counter-revolution that places competition and the right to private property at the heart of how institutions work, including among the most disadvantaged populations. The support of for-profit funds and of competition between organisations has led to the considerable marketing of financial services. But resistance from borrowers has caused the arrangement to fail by changing the image of small loans. As a consequence, microcredit, which is based on the merit of saving and which expands the range of services for transfers, payments and the insurance of goods and individuals, henceforth finds itself facing a revolution that is underway: a revamp of currency and finance based on new forms of sharing.

The book The Real Microcredit Revolution, edited Odile Jacob (Paris), will be launched on 11 March.