I didn't understand if the post shows "actual APR interest rates are higher than the portfolio yield." They seem to say that but their explanation didn't convince me (maybe I am just not comprehending what they do show).

I couldn't understand how they showed "portfolio yield" was less than costs to borrowers. "Portfolio yield" as Kiva uses it is intended to include all costs to borrowers.

> They have had a number of "problems" with rogue banks

I agree, but I expected this. Look the banks in the USA and Europe have been shown to be incredibly corrupt all the way to the top. That is a huge moral failure we seem to not care about - those same people continue to buy our politicians with no significant push back. I only say this to set that stage that while some of Kiva's partners have issues none of them even approach systemic failure of the large USA and European banks actions have been doing continually for a decade or more.

These tiny "banks" Kiva is dealing with have some issues. There isn't an infrastructure of financial auditing and regulation. There isn't a large number of qualified accounting experts. So these "banks" and some are more charities than "banks" are trying to do this stuff but there are likely to be issues.

How you judge how Kiva does in rooting out fraud and ineptness by banks is partially going to be based on your expectations. I expect fraud and ineptness to be part of what the first few years of Kiva would include. I might be getting to the point where i think Kiva should have improved more by now.

I think Kiva is too focused on growth and not enough focused on making sure the dollars at work are producing the most value (and avoiding causing harm). This is a a typical problem the USA mentality that growth is nearly everything (look at the silly frustration with Apple for only making $13 billion a quarter because growth is slowing down as a very visible example).

The challenges to expand those reached with beneficial micro-loans are much greater than I think many want to admit. I expected Kiva to have a bunch of work to make that happen (and in doing so for their to be substantial issues).

I agree it is good there are a bunch of options to Kiva.

I am not at all sure "It is only dealing with the relatively simpler and less onerous parts of the chain of money from your pocket to the pocket of the end client, and yet cannot even do this well." is accurate. I think they do that very well.

I trust charity navigators ranking much more than one blog post that says expenses are high without any details. My guess is the expenses may appear high for very good reasons. And as I stated those costs matter not to borrower or lenders (only donors - donors bare the full cost of Kiva expenses not lenders or borrowers on Kiva). It wouldn't be amazing if Kiva got greedy given all the money flowing to them. I am not saying they did, but I wouldn't be shocked if expenses have increased because they got enough donations that they could (people often take what they can even in charities - not necessarily greedly just justify it because there is a big pool of money...). I looked closely years ago and found Kiva good on this front. I haven't looked now but shifted my donations to Trickleup.org and through GlobalGiving.org the last few years so haven't had to look.

The part I question with Kiva is oversight on the hard part. Kiva sends lots of people (many volunteers but Kiva has costs paying I think for expenses) to the field to audit and train these partners. And I believe (though could be wrong) they do lots of auditing at the headquarters level.

My concerns with Kiva I are basically related to the hard part you mention:

1) measurements of success in improving people's lives (you didn't mention that as a hard part, but I think it is)

2) are they auditing these partners well
a) is all the loan data accurate, are payments credited properly, are loans going where they say they are...
b) is Kiva able to block fraud
c) since I figure for at least some partners they are going to be issues is Kiva able to provide good training and resources to help where necessary (and verify it is working)
d) is the data provided to Kiva lenders accurate (costs to borrowers, those borrowers are actually getting the money...)

It seems to me it is the hard stuff where there is a real question about if Kiva is doing as well as it should be.

Also, as I mentioned in at least one comment - Kiva Zip (new in the last year) is (I think) basically direct peer-to-peer for those that want that.