Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Microfinance Sector in Europe [Research Paper]

This paper summarizes the data collected by the Microfinance Centre (MFC) through a survey of microfinance institutions in Europe to assess the impact of COVID-19 crisis on the situation of microfinance institutions and their clients. The results show that while the pandemic touched all countries in the EU, the severity of its impact was markedly different, from very strong in some countries to almost negligible in others. However, all countries implemented some form of a lockdown which affected MFIs and their clients.