Microfinance Information Exchange, Inc. (commonly known by its acronym MIX) was a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that provided market data and intelligence on financial service providers catering to low-income populations around the world. Founded by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and sponsored by the Citi Foundation, CGAP, the

Mastercard Foundation The Mastercard Foundation is an international non-governmental organization established by Mastercard in 2006. The organization, which is based in Toronto, Ontario, has supported work in 49 countries. In 2018, Mastercard Foundation shifted to a ...

, MetLife Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others, MIX had offices in

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, New York, Lima (

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), Baku (

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

), Dakar (

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

), and Hyderabad (

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

). MIX's mission was to provide data analytics to empower decision-makers - socially responsible investors, policy makers and financial services providers - to build an inclusive financial services ecosystem. Since its founding in 2002, MIX had built the digital information infrastructure needed to bring greater transparency to financial sectors serving low-income populations in emerging markets, including providing market data on over 3,000 financial services providers (FSPs). In 2016, MIX shifted its strategy to help improve the information flow in other segments of

financial inclusion Financial inclusion is defined as the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to a process by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and service ...

, like

smallholder A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...

agricultural finance, fintech, digital financial services (DFS) and green energy finance. In May 2020, MIX became a unit of the Center for Financial Inclusion, a thinktank housed a
Accion

Market intelligence data

MIX collects, validates and publishes financial, operational and social performance

data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete Value_(semiotics), values that convey information, describing quantity, qualitative property, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of sy ...

from financial service providers (FSPs) including non-bank financial institutions, rural cooperatives, fintechs, agricultural businesses, and others, in addition to business information from

networks Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

, funders and socially responsible

investors An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

. This data is standardized and made available to users through subscriptions on an online platform: MIX Market. MIX also produces a variety of publications covering the sector such as ''Barometer Forecast'', ''Annual Benchmark Reports'', and ''Quarterly Factsheets'', as well as a number of ad hoc publications each year like the ''Global Outreach and Financial Performance Benchmark Report''.

Custom data analytics

MIX works with major funders of financial inclusion to carry out projects related to data and information provision for financial services sectors in emerging markets. Because many investors and FSPs in these regions struggle to make business and investment decisions due to the limited flow and availability of data and information, MIX and its partners identify these information 'gaps' and develop solutions to address them. Examples of efforts to support the healthy development of financial markets through better information include One Acre Fund's ''Smallholder Finance Product Explorer'', the Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance's ''State of the Sector'' report and analysis, and the CGAP ''Cross Border Funder Survey''; all are initiatives supported by MIX's custom data analytics.

Platforms

MIX Market

MIX Market is an online platform for delivering data and information on FSPs serving low-income and bottom of the pyramid clients in emerging markets like India, Cambodia, Ghana and others. MIX Market provides online data on over 3,000 financial service providers, networks and funders. In FY2015, 1,033 financial service providers reported data through MIX Market. Those financial service providers total 116.6 million borrowers, corresponding to a gross loan portfolio of USD 92.4 billion. These financial service providers also have savings products that reach 98.4 million depositors and account for USD 58.9 billion in deposits. Data collection and analysis – After receiving self-reported data from financial service providers, MIX analysts “review the data, ensuring there are no outliers and extremes.

hey Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...

double check against source documents such as audits and ratings, and standardize he dataaccording to internationally accepted accounting standards and to provide for a more useful intra-regional comparison.” Data products – The main, publicly-accessible data products of MIX Market include FSP profiles (including financial indicators,

trend A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short period. Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve shor ...

s, and benchmarks), and country and regional market overviews. * FSP profiles – The most basic medium through which data can be accessed on MIX Market is through individual FSP profiles which provide financial, operational, and social performance data as well as relevant documents, such as

audits An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon.” Auditing ...

. With this data, users can view and compare performance data of several FSPs (by countries, indicators, and trends), create customizable performance and trend reports, and create benchmarks to view aggregated data in median values. * Country-level and regional profiles – These options permit a wider perspective on MFI performance data, allowing users to view information on a country-level scale or a regional scale. MIX Market currently has country profiles for 115 countries divided into six regions:

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

or Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA),

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

and The Caribbean (LAC),

East Asia and the Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the Earth, world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and List ...

(EAP),

Middle East and North Africa MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia (or a ...

(MENA),

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

(EECA), and

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

(SA).

Subscriptions

Starting in 2012, MIX introduced subscription services to individuals and organizations that wanted to access and analyze data on the MIX Market platform. * MIX Gold is a custom reporting product for major investors and funders that use MIX Market to collect, clean and verify data from their portfolio companies. Clients using MIX Gold include

Opportunity International Opportunity International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is working to end global poverty by creating and sustaining jobs. Through a network of 47 program and support partners, Opportunity provides small business loans, savings, insu ...

, UNCDF, and the

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. The IFC is a member of ...

. * MIX Intelligence is a

market intelligence Market intelligence (MI) is gathering and analyzing information relevant to a company's market - trends, competitor and customer (existing, lost and targeted) monitoring. It is a subtype of competitive intelligence (CI), which is data and info ...

product for major investors focused on financial inclusion. The subscription provides institutions with access to market-level data for performance benchmarking and comparison, and includes forecasts from local operators. Clients using MIX Intelligence include Triple Jump, BNP Paribas, Water.org and

Oikocredit Oikocredit (in full Oikocredit, Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society U.A.) is a cooperative society that offers loans or investment capital for microfinance institutions, cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises in developing coun ...

. * MIX Essentials is a data product for use by individual researchers, academics, students and consultants. The subscription was launched in 2016 as part of MIX's website redesign and provides access to annual datasets on a 3- and 12-month term. * MIX Discovery is a free data product that allows visitors to access limited data including organization profiles, country overviews and region overviews.

Publications

* Annual Benchmark Reports * Barometer Forecast * Quarterly Factsheet

References

External links

MIX
{{Authority control Microfinance organizations Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C. Organizations established in 2002 2002 establishments in Washington, D.C.