ABSTRACT
The financialization of micro-credit has been enabled by flows of capital that trace multiple directions, including practices organized not only around the attraction of capital to its very edges but also its dispersal. One technique that has been at the heart of financialization is securitization, a method with which an underlying set of assets is used as collateral for securities issued against those assets which are then distributed to a wide range of investors. This chapter is divided into three sections. A first section sets some of the context for the chapter by emphasizing the commercialization of micro-credit. A second section begins drawing some of the specific dimensions of this kind of conversion by focusing on the channels of access opened via microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs). A third section suggests that the securitization of micro-credit receivables both parallels but innovates beyond the asset-backed securities so associated with the subprime crisis.
