Talk:Review: FINCA

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Questions on reading FINCA's statistical report

• I'm very confused by their "YTD net operating margin (after tax)" figure.
  • Why are they paying taxes? Isn't FINCA a 501c3? Is this referring to their subsidiaries? What is the structure here?
  • Similar: what happens to these profits? Do they go into FINCA's general fund or what?
• I really don't understand the OSS and FSS statistics. FSS is especially confusing--what inflation rate are they referring to? What do these stand for and why are they meaningful?
• What is this "Portfolio at risk" stuff?

• So here's what I learned from the report:
  • FINCA's operations appear to be profitable everywhere except the Middle East. Why is this--because their operations in the Middle East are newer?
  • I learned the avg loan size (much higher in Eurasia than elsewhere) and the total loans outstanding, good things to know.
  • From the total loans disbursed and the loans outstanding, it appears that their loan portfolio turns over 2-5x per year, depending on the region, implying a repayment period within 6 months--that's cool.
• The big question I still have is what do I get for my dollar? And now that I see revenues > expenses in most regions, it seems that the answer has to lie in the startup costs of a new operation. Can they tell us which regions have mostly new operations in them? Which ones have established ones? Or just answer the question directly? Somehow we have to get to the effective "cost per loan" of donating to FINCA, and I now think this is the most promising path.
• I'm still confused as heck by their finances as reported by the annual report. How can their assets total $133m, $98m of which is "loans and advance receivables," when this report says they have $156m of loans outstanding? Is the difference one of counting the loans at market value? Regardless, even $156m + $25m (their investment assets) = $181m, and they report $47m of interest income--how exactly are they making 25% annual interest per year?
• Oh yeah, and I still want to know what interest rate they charge in dollar terms. And I'd still like to see breakdowns of what interest rates they charge where, breakdown of repayment rates by time to repayment & interest rate.

We have a little bit more tangible sense now of the loan turnover, and of the self-sustaining issue, both of which they answered verbally but now have a bit more #'s behind them. I still am not clear on whether they're making a profit, and what my dollar will do (which I now think is answered through the question of how much it costs to start a new operation).

Holden 00:07, 14 December 2006 (EST)