MBK Partnership on hold

[Guest]

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[steve0465]

Does anyone have any insight as to why MBK put their partnership with KIVA on hold?

"MBK recently chose to repay the outstanding balance of this loan using
its own funds, as they are putting their partnership with Kiva on hold
for the time being. This decision does not affect the entrepreneur who
received this loan. In fact, the entrepreneur will continue to receive
the benefits of the loan and repay the outstanding balance of the loan
directly to MBK. In addition, as a client of MBK, the entrepreneur will
qualify for subsequent loans from MBK upon completion of repayment. For
more information about MBK's partnership with Kiva, please visit MBK's
Partner Page on the Kiva website:
http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=43."

[quizzoid]

I do not have any "inside information."

However, it might have something to do with this thread.  If you don't want to read all 14 pages, you can probably start on page 12 or 13:  http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,1773.0.html

Also, see this thread:  http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,2053.0.html

If it is related, this ties into the recent conversation about how KivaFriends is about Kiva, but KivaFriends is not part of Kiva.

This may also be related to the recent KF thread that got a little out of control and was banished by the moderators.  I wasn't lurking on the board much, yesterday, so I didn't actually see the "wild thread."

[saabnet]

Sure, Kiva has given some information about this themselves on their web site. See the MBK Partner page at the following link.

http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=43

-Scott

[steve0465]

"Status Update: MBK has temporarily has placed its partnership with Kiva on hold as Kiva develops new administrative features that will strengthen Kiva's internal partnership management systems. MBK - as an organization that focuses on serving the very poor of Indonesia - has been and continues to be an excellent partner for Kiva and its lenders. Kiva is working diligently to create new features that will enhance our ability to more effectively select and monitor future MFI partners, and we look forward to re-establishing our partnership with MBK in the near future."

This is incomprehensible.  It doesn't tell me anything about why MBK temporarily placed its partnership with Kiva on hold and decided to refund all of the loans last week. 

[saabnet]

This is incomprehensible.  It doesn't tell me anything about why MBK temporarily placed its partnership with Kiva on hold and decided to refund all of the loans last week. 

I think it does. MBK wants better tools from Kiva. I think that's important to note. As I understand it, there was a glitch in which their repayments were not being reported properly to the Kiva site. I don't know why or how that happened or who would be to blame. It happened.

As I get up to speed by reading past postings on KF, I am learning more about the MBK issue. I noted a posting from a Kiva Staffer about MBK that I think has some good information in it that might be helpful to you. Here is the link.

http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,1773.msg24195.html#msg24195

I am a relative newcomer to Kiva and KF, so if I have something factually wrong here, please correct me.

-Scott

[AccountAbility]

Thanks for the summary, Scott.  For a "newcomer", you certainly are doing your homework! 

Dan

[steve0465]

So, did MBK suspend the partnership because of a thread that got out of control, or because they want better tools from KIVA? 

I'm well aware of the issues that were addressed 4+ months ago -- I started the original thread.  I thought that, because of the considerable amount of time that has passed, MBK might now be responding to something other than some of the comments that were made on that thread.  I notice, though, that the last loan was funded on March 6, so it looks like they've finalized a decision that was made in March. 

I'm interested in knowing what MBK's specific requirements are to reinstate a relationship with KIVA.

I'm also interested in a general, layman's description of the administrative features KIVA is now developing to improve internal partnership management systems. 

[saabnet]

So, did MBK suspend the partnership because of a thread that got out of control, or because they want better tools from KIVA? 

I don't think anyone knows for sure (I mean, really) except Kiva and MBK.

I'm interested in knowing what MBK's specific requirements are to reinstate a relationship with KIVA.

Again, this is probably solely between Kiva and MBK... I'm guessing.

I'm also interested in a general, layman's description of the administrative features KIVA is now developing to improve internal partnership management systems. 

I'm betting this is all proprietary information. While I do remember reading somewhere about Kiva working currently on a new version of their Field Partner tools, I cannot find the link (looked awhile for it before posting). I doubt you'll find specific feature information available for us.

I'm definitely getting out of my area of knowledge at this point... sorry.

-Scott

[cpbailey]

I suspect that when the quarterly net payments were due, MBK decided it was easiest to just completely pay off all loans.  This saves them from having to remember three months from now.  It saves transaction fees.  If they have other sources of money, then it is just all taken care of at one time.  The borrowers still have loans if scheduled to do so, just the source of cash is different.  In their time from Feb 2007 until now, they had approximately $75k total in loans.  Much of it would have been repaid or due already, so it isn't a lot of money for a $3.5 million portfolio their website claims to have (I don't know how much that may have changed since being posted).

Colette

[nobodynowhere]

Color me very skeptical about MBK.  The remark about being offended by a few comments that they'd consider leaving Kiva strikes me as an attempt to manipulate Kiva and Kiva supporters into continuing to fund their projects.

"Me think he doth protest too much."

I've noticed, in personal experiences, whenever someone is accused of something, and they act over-the-top offended, that more often than not, they are guilty.

[saabnet]

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[nobodynowhere]

The thoroughness of your first two posts to this new (to you) community leaves a lot to be desired. I fail to follow the logic of your comment above at all. Why would MBK sever their relationship with Kiva temporarily if they wanted to manipulate Kiva and its lenders to continue funding (their projects??) their loans? I'd go as far as to say that whatever happened here on KF had about 1% to do with MBK leaving and what's on the MFI page on Kiva is about 99% of why they left. To me, it seems very straightforward. There's not much conspiracy theory material here.

Interesting name by the way, perhaps you can back up a bit and start by introducing yourself to the community here in the Introductions thread and maybe tell us what it is about Kiva that you do like that made you start lending.

-Scott

First, I've been reading this board for a while, I just never posted before.

If you read the note from a Kiva employee on the matter, they mentioned that because Kiva lenders wanted to go into Africa (and I can hardly blame them, Africa is a region that should be targeted), they didn't conduct the due diligence that they normally do.  Reading between the lines, it sounds like something fishy was going on.  Kiva has learned from their mistake, so I don't think this will be a problem again.

MBK would sever their relationship if it meant that Kiva wouldn't be able to pursue conducting some due diligence.  It's certainly going to be harder for Kiva if MBK isn't working with them anymore.  (It also makes MBK look sympathetic in the eyes of the lenders.  That seems to be working.)

I don't think it's a conspiracy, and I'm not sure why you think I am implying that. 

[saabnet]

MBK would sever their relationship if it meant that Kiva wouldn't be able to pursue conducting some due diligence.

Thanks very much for taking the time to introduce yourself and welcome to KivaFriends. I'm hoping we can get off on better footing. I apologize for my impoliteness.

I appreciate you filling in the gaps and definitely share most of your views on the Africa situation.

As for the MBK stuff; the only thing I'd point out is that Kiva also posted here that there really wasn't any due diligence pending as the error was that automatic payment updates had been accidentally turned off by one of MBK's employees and had gone unnoticed by both Kiva and MBK (for quite some time)...

Thanks for the post and again, welcome to the forum.

-Scott