CMI believes that providing much needed financial services to the poor can be both efficient and profitable if the institutions that provide these services are properly managed and funded. Pioneers of microfinance, like ASA in Bangladesh, have shown that, if done correctly, microfinance can help the poor and be a profitable, low-risk venture.

Accordingly, CMI has teamed with ASA to build and invest in high-performing microfinance institutions throughout Africa and Asia that may benefit from having access to the best-practice ASA model to scale up and reach many more of the poor in the developing world in a financially sustainable manner.

By encouraging efficient, for-profit processes in its investees, CMI seeks to create and enable the next generation of market-leading, high-performing, scalable microfinance institutions around the world, and to deliver an attractive proposition to investors looking for a combination of financial and social returns.