| Summary: | ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between the legal forms adopted by microfinance institutions (MFIs) and their performance within three scopes: financial performance, social performance, and efficiency in resource allocation. The MFIs studied are classified into four groups: banks, non-governmental organizations, cooperatives, and a fourth group formed of for-profit institutions not characterized as banks, made up of non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) and rural banks. The data used are annual and cover the six years from 2007 to 2012. The quantitative regression model with panel data was used together with dummy variables to compare between the four groups of legal forms, except for the group made up of NBFIs and rural banks, which was not represented by any dummy variable. 304 MFIs from 59 countries made up the sample. In the study it was observed that larger MFIs have higher profits, higher returns, and higher operational self-sufficiency rates than smaller MFIs, indicating that MFI growth could enable consolidation in the microfinance market. The results also indicate that for smaller MFIs the way to consolidate and improve the indicators could be through assimilating or merging with other MFIs. It was also noted that non-bank financial institutions and rural banks are able to serve more customers and that cooperatives provide smaller loans, causing a bigger social impact, and that they obtain higher returns and profits. The results indicate that these legal forms may be the most appropriate for the microfinance market.
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