Definition of an evolutionary model for inclusive financing entities

Abstract

Inclusive financing institutions are the ones whose main objective is the fight against usury and financial exclusion, by way of providing basic financing services that allow beneficiaries to improve their living conditions. The tradition for this type of institution in Europe goes back centuries. In Catalonia, the movement goes back to XVIII century when the first ‘Montes de Piedad’ appeared, adopting surety credit as an instrument for social aid. As from the middle of XIX century the appearance of Saving Banks took off seriously. Their development later turned Catalonia into one of the European regions with the greatest presence of Savings Banks, not only in number, but also in financial volume and in public importance of its social work. In less developed countries, similar institutions also appeared in the seventies of the last century. In this case, they have become known as micro–financing institutions based on the use of micro–credits. Their development has also spiralled and has been adapted to hundreds of other countries, with a figure of 100 million customers benefited throughout the world by 2006, and universal recog‑ nition for its main instigator, professor Yunus, with the Nobel Peace prize. The research carried out has led us to study the first of these two movements, the Savings Banks in Catalonia, and extract an evolutionary model that could become a common model for Inclusive Financing Institutions as a body.