Southeast Asia's Credit Revolution

Southeast Asia’s Credit Revolution describes and explains the rise of microfinance – the provision of credit and other financial services for the poor – in Southeast Asia, over the past four decades the most consistently successful region of the developing world. In recent years microfinance has come to be seen as a key weapon in the battle against global poverty, generating more enthusiasm and optimism than any other development strategy.

Southeast Asia has a special place in the history of microfinance. Historically, Southeast Asian societies and economies were perceived as almost uniquely debt-ridden and credit-constrained. In the twentieth century, however, the region was in the forefront of the modern microfinance revolution. This book asks what factors have made it possible for formal microfinance institutions to replace moneylenders and other traditional credit providers.

Bringing together economists, sociologists, anthropologists and historians, the book covers seven Southeast Asian countries. The topic is explored from cultural and institutional as well as economic perspectives, and policy-relevant lessons are offered for the design of successful microfinance institutions. Focusing on recent developments while putting them in historical context, this will be an important text for scholars and students of economic history, finance, institutional economics, and Asian Studies.

David Henley is a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden. He has written on diverse topics in the history of Indonesia, and currently coordinates an international research project on the comparative economic histories of Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Aditya Goenka is an economist at the National University of Singapore. His research interests include endogenous business cycles, economic growth, and credit market imperfections. He is currently working on the effect of infectious diseases on economic growth.