After a career in bank­ing, Princess Max­ima of the Nether­lands now works as an United Nations spe­cial adviser on Inclu­sive Finance for Devel­op­ment. She was the open­ing speaker at a con­fer­ence of micro­cre­dit that is under­way in New Delhi.

From this inter­view from the Busi­ness Stan­dard, Sree­latha Menon asks Princess Max­ima how she got inter­ested in micro­cre­dit, and poses some ques­tions on inter­est rates charged to the poor.

How did you get inter­ested in the sub­ject of micro­cre­dit and finan­cial inclu­sion?
I am an econ­o­mist and worked as a banker in New York and Argentina where I was drawn into the area of micro­cre­dit. After my mar­riage, I was invited to the United Nations group on finan­cial inclu­sion and was later asked to con­tribute as spe­cial advisor.

What are your major wor­ries about finan­cial inclu­sion?
It is not about micro­cre­dit. It is about an array of ser­vices such as deposits, insur­ance prod­ucts. My core work is to advo­cate the impor­tance of finan­cial inclu­sion and I have many agen­cies such as the Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund and Inter­na­tional Finance Cor­po­ra­tion which are help­ing me.

How do you help the cause in coun­tries such as India? Do you pro­vide aid to small insti­tu­tions?
I know peo­ple in the sec­tor and I can put peo­ple in touch with the right groups.

The growth of micro­fi­nance in India is sup­posed to bridge the gap in finan­cial inclu­sion. Is it hap­pen­ing?
The growth here is phe­nom­e­nal at 95 per cent a year. About 20 mil­lion Indi­ans now have access to micro­cre­dit, com­pared to less than one mil­lion five years ago. This is an impres­sive growth by any stan­dard. It is also very inno­v­a­tive. The type of ser­vices MFIs are bring­ing to their clients is amaz­ing. But what still has not hap­pened here is MFIs offer­ing deposit ser­vices. But it is under­stood that reg­u­la­tors are con­cerned about the safety of the money of the poor. When sav­ings prod­ucts are acces­si­ble, they are widely used. For exam­ple, in coun­tries such as Kenya and Uganda, when appro­pri­ate prod­ucts are avail­able, sav­ings level has tripled, so has the num­ber of savers.

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