Bugs and New Repayment System - Q&A With Kiva CS

[Guest]

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[wind5001]

I would like to reinforce Dan's point here; something along those lines would have been completely satisfactory.

Gerard,

I want to re-stress Dan's and Diane's and Richard's point because I hope the more people voice this, the better it is understood: KFriends understand that there are delicate issues that are being addressed regarding MIFEX, EbF etc. I am a lawyer, I know what I am talking about. However, we are talking, in the end of it all, about lenders' money. We as lenders therefore deserve some kind of information. It should not be factual information, but rather status information. And that information needs to be given on a regular base. As a lender, I become frustrated when I see my money locked somewhere, no progress, and no information from Kiva, except something that is months old. It makes me feel as if Kiva is not doing anything. You have to reconsider the position on this information policy!

[wthepoo]

...
I have read in threads in KF that certain MFIs disburse their funds immediately after or in some cases before fundraising is complete (correct me if this is not true) meaning in advance of receiving the wired funds from Kiva's lenders.  This would mean they are using the money collected from repayments to lend out while waiting for the wire to come in from Kiva with the actual loan's funds.  In the spirit of transparency, how does this get shown and if, as you said above, there are MFIs doing more in the fundraising department than in repayments isn't this going to muddle the whole new repayment process up? 
...

Hi Joan,

I am (obviously) not Gerard, and I don't know for certain if this will completely address and answer your question, but one thing I find important to recall is that Kiva is only one of many funding sources for the MFIs - actually, Kiva has limited itself IIRC to providing not more than 30% (or so) of an MFI's lending capital. So most MFIs will have funds that don't come from Kiva or have to be paid back to Kiva - also, they might have built liquidity reserves from the interest they earn. So they can disburse loans from these reserves if they choose to do so and "only" replenish them, again, with the funds they actually receive from Kiva later in the process.

Thus, as I see it, there is no danger of something muddling the new repayment process up.

Hopefully that is helpful?!

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[howard]

I wonder whether Kiva is in contact with the suppliers of the remaining 70% of lending capital, in the case of Mifex and similar. I presume that the other lenders have the same problem, but maybe better sources of info.

Howard

[waywardcats]

I want to re-stress Dan's and Diane's and Richard's point because I hope the more people voice this, the better it is understood: KFriends understand that there are delicate issues that are being addressed regarding MIFEX, EbF etc.

Gerard,

Please add my voice to those of Oli, Diane, Dan and Richard.  Communication is not necessarily giving the answers, it is also showing respect for your customer base to let them know that you are aware they are still waiting for answers.  Even though you may not have those answers yet, it is still courteous at the least to acknowledge that you understand the investors are waiting for information and you have not forgotten them or the negotiations involved. 

-Kerry-

[Limesarah]

This is certainly not a crucial thing, but are there plans to bring back notification of completed loans?  I like to be able to catch it when someone finishes their loan term, and leave them a congratulatory note.

[waywardcats]

This is certainly not a crucial thing, but are there plans to bring back notification of completed loans?  I like to be able to catch it when someone finishes their loan term, and leave them a congratulatory note.

Hi Sarah,

Kiva thought this bug was squashed a few days ago (see this post from Gerard).  If you have a specific example of a loan that you made for which you did not get a confirmation, please let Kiva know, either through contactus or by a PM to Gerard.

-Kerry-

[Gerard]

I have read in threads in KF that certain MFIs disburse their funds immediately after or in some cases before fundraising is complete (correct me if this is not true) meaning in advance of receiving the wired funds from Kiva's lenders.  This would mean they are using the money collected from repayments to lend out while waiting for the wire to come in from Kiva with the actual loan's funds.  In the spirit of transparency, how does this get shown and if, as you said above, there are MFIs doing more in the fundraising department than in repayments isn't this going to muddle the whole new repayment process up?  The delayed repayments give them more time to have the books be "off" during the days/weeks that they are "borrowing" money they haven't yet received, allowing funds to go unaccounted for rather than truly being transparent and  "marked to market" so to speak.... that's sort of fudging the books temporarily... I don't know if I have explained my concern clearly, but I just don't see how permitting MFIs to do this benefits timely repayments (because obviously they won't be as timely as they would be if they weren't doing this) to lenders or the whole transparency issue you are stressing as one of your objectives.  And as I said, this may just be a misunderstanding on my part, or misinformation be passed around so please correct me if that is the case.

To which Wolfgang replied:

... one thing I find important to recall is that Kiva is only one of many funding sources for the MFIs - actually, Kiva has limited itself IIRC to providing not more than 30% (or so) of an MFI's lending capital. So most MFIs will have funds that don't come from Kiva or have to be paid back to Kiva - also, they might have built liquidity reserves from the interest they earn. So they can disburse loans from these reserves if they choose to do so and "only" replenish them, again, with the funds they actually receive from Kiva later in the process.

Thus, as I see it, there is no danger of something muddling the new repayment process up.

Wolfgang has hit the nail on the head here. One thing to note is that in the new system it's possible for our partner to post a loan with a disbursal date in the past, to let you know if the loan has already been disbursed. They also get to set the repayment schedule, so they can give lenders a good picture of the way the loan is being administered and our system knows when to expect repayments.

[Gerard]

Please add my voice to those of Oli, Diane, Dan and Richard.  Communication is not necessarily giving the answers, it is also showing respect for your customer base to let them know that you are aware they are still waiting for answers.  Even though you may not have those answers yet, it is still courteous at the least to acknowledge that you understand the investors are waiting for information and you have not forgotten them or the negotiations involved. 

To Kerry and all the others on this thread who have voiced similar thoughts - I agree 100%. We've been meeting about this and setting some new communication guidelines to make sure you're not in the dark when there are partner issues that need to be addressed. We can do much better here, we should do much better here, and we're making an effort to do much better here. That won't mean anything until there are some results of said action, but I want you folks to know that we hear this and are working toward this goal.

I want to try to keep this thread focused on Bugs and the new repayment system, if possible, of course with the understanding that these partner communications are super important. 

[wind5001]

Thanks, Gerard,

I guess we simply wanted to let you know how important this is...and I will let it rest here in this thread after your statement.

OLi

[Limesarah]

waywardcats -- thanks!  I must have just missed that post.  I haven't had any scheduled to complete lately, so I assume it is, in fact fixed :-)