Does Legal Status Affect Performance of Microfinance Institutions?: Empirical Evidence from India

Transformation of non-government organizations (NGOs) to shareholder-owned microfinance institutions (MFIs) is an on-going debate in the field of microfinance research. Institutionalists support the transformation, whereas welfarists argue that NGOs are better conduits in serving poor clients. Prior studies on the impact of legal status of MFIs on their performance document mixed results. This study empirically investigates the extent to which the transformation is justified by examining the impact of legal status on the performance of MFIs in India. Using both univariate (t-test and rank-sum test) and multivariate (random effect model) regression analysis on a dataset of 57 MFIs over the period of six years from 2008-2009 to 2013-2014, the study finds that the NGOs have better financial and sustainability performance than non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), but with respect to social performance both are indistinguishable. Further, the former has lesser costs of operation and better portfolio quality than the latter. Therefore, NGOs outperform NBFCs with respect to all dimensions of performance except for social performance where both are equally efficient. In conclusion, the transformation of NGOs to NBFCs may not improve the performance of Indian MFIs. These findings are expected to have substantial practical implications for managers of MFIs and for policymakers in framing policies for Indian MFIs.