Tamal Bandyopadhyay on microfinance industry cycle | Subtext by Zerodha

Start your investing journey for free! Open a zero-brokerage Demat and trading account with Zerodha to invest in Stocks, Mutual Funds, ETFs, and Bonds: https://zerodha.com/open-account/?c=Z... In this episode of Subtext, I sit down with Tamal Bandyopadhyay — veteran banking journalist and senior advisor at Jana Small Finance Bank — to unpack the microfinance credit crisis of 2023–24. We discuss how RBI's 2022 interest rate deregulation gave lenders a freedom they arguably misused, why borrowers ended up with 14 loans simultaneously, how the JLG model is collapsing in the digital age, and what investors should actually look for before betting on an MFI stock. If you want to understand credit cycles from first principles, this one's for you. Video Mentioned: Has the microfinance credit cycle turned? -    • Has the microfinance credit cycle turned? ...   Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 2:29 - What is Microfinance? (RBI's Definition) 7:06 - Why MFI is Prone to Repeated Credit Cycles 22:25 - The JLG (Joint Liability Group) Model & Its Collapse 27:27 - RBI's 2022 Interest Rate Deregulation — The Red Letter Day 28:21 - The Over-Lending Crisis: One Borrower, 14 Loans 36:27 - How to Evaluate an MFI as an Investor #TamalBandyopadhyay #microfinance