CALMEADOW'S CANADIAN MICROFINANCE EXPERIENCE
From 1987 to fall of 2000, CALMEADOW was involved in a number of microlending experimental initiatives in Canada. Starting in 1987, we initiated the First Nations lending program, followed by a loan fund in Vancouver and concluding with two loan fund initiatives in Nova Scotia and Toronto, Ontario. Our experiments led us to the conclusion that stand-alone, exclusively targeted, microcredit operations are not commercially viable in fully developed countries. The absence of a critical mass of customers or offsetting income from other financial services offered make it impossible to cover all costs within the bounds of a fair interest rate structure. While there is definitely a need for accessible and reasonably priced credit for low income self-employed Canadians, we believe that these services can best be provided by more traditional financial institutions, those that can absorb and manage the sustained cost and risk of microfinance within a fully integrated and diversified operation.
In order to ensure sustainability of our efforts, we successfully transferred two of our domestic experiments to local credit unions, Metro Credit Union in Toronto and VanCity Credit Union. Their full range of financial services, their values and their focus on local community make them particularly attractive successors.
