Microcredit or microfinance is banking for bringing credit, savings and other essential financial services within the reach of millions of people who are too poor to be served by regular banks, in most cases because they are unable to offer sufficient collateral. In general, banks are for people with money, not for people without. The goal of microfinance is to give low income people an opportunity to become self-sufficient. For example the Deutsche Bank Microcredit Development Fund ( DB MDF ) mission is to develop indigenous financial system that serve the poor by catalyzing linkages between local financial institution-fundamental source of capital and microfinance institutions (MFIs).
The DB MDF is a tax exempt U.S. corporation, conceived with the focus of helping microfinance institutions reach scale and long-term sustainability.