In addition to performing their core role in the intertemporal allocation of resources, however, credit transactions reflect the economic environment within which they occur. In the rural areas of poor countries this environment is characterized by objective risk, with unpredictable variations in income as a result of weather and other exogenous processes. Complete insurance markets are absent, so credit transactions take on a special role in allowing resources to be transferred in response to income shocks. The environment also may be characterized by costly acquisition and asymmetric distribution of information. Moral hazard and adverse selection therefore may arise, along with special organizational features that serve to mitigate or accommodate the problems caused by these information asymmetries. It will be seen that considerations of risk and information are central to the special character of rural credit transactions, and that an effort to focus exclusively on the transfer of resources across time will generally be misleading.