Mol Bulak Finance is strongly committed to the principles of sustainable development on the base of 3 PPP concepts - People (building human capital and taking care of its customers and the society as well), Profit (to be profitable to grow further) and the Planet (taking care of the environment). The Company is the only one MFI in Kyrgyzstan who delivers its services to customers 365 days a year.

Offering individual secured loan product (SME) and group loan products targeted at low-income woman-entrepreneurs, Mol Bulak Finance has 24 offices throughout Kyrgyzstan and employs more than 241 employees and 90% of them are females. As of May 12, 2009 Mol Bulak Finance had over 14,000 active customers and a total portfolio of $ 5,0 mln. 85% of the Company’s customers are women living and running their businesses in rural areas in trade, agriculture, manufacturing and services.

Kyrgyzstan at a Glance

In the very heart of Central Asia lies a wonderful mountainous land – a country of Kyrgyzstan with the rich history that dates back to 201 BC. More than 80 ethnic groups live here, creating the variety of cultures and traditions. It serves as a trade crossroad and a trans-shipment point between the Europe and Asia as before when it used to be a connecting-link between north and south directions of Silk Way.

Sweeping mountains cover much of the country (93%), it sometimes referred to as “the Switzerland of Central Asia”, with sub-tropical valleys and basins. The emerald-blue Issyk-Kul Lake, also known as ' Pearl of Tien Shan', is the second largest mountain lake in the world after Titicaca. It’s home for one of the longest epics in the world, “Manas”, which is 20 times longer, than Homer’s Odysseys and an Iliad taken together, and 2.5 times longer, than a Mahabharata.

The economy of Kyrgyzstan was severely affected by the collapse of the Soviet trading block. More than 20% of the Kyrgyz population has left to other parts of the Soviet Union within past 10 years to seek work.

While strong growth in neighboring Kazakhstan and China has created opportunities for expansion, Kyrgyzstan remains a small economy vulnerable to external shocks. Persistently high inflation, coupled with the global financial crisis, threatens to undermine recent improvements in poverty levels.

You can learn more about Mol Bulak through a video describing the organization and its services.


January 18, 2012

MCC Mol Bulak Finance LLC has been a partner of Kiva for thirty-one months, successfully paying back $1,805,930 in loans with a 100% repayment rate since the partnership began in June of 2009.  Kiva and Mol Bulak have recently agreed to close the partnership. There are $351,360 in current outstanding loans; as repayments come in from these borrowers, those funds will also be paid back to lenders. We'd like to thank Kiva lenders for their support of Mol Bulak's borrowers over the last thirty-one months. $2,155,875 has been raised for Mol Bulak borrowers with the help of the Kiva community. Many thanks for your continued support! 

August 10, 2010

After a careful review, Kiva is unpausing the settlements procedure for Mol Bulak. As a result, its delinquency rate should fall from its current level of 63.97%.

Despite the difficulty caused by the recent civil unrest and violence, many Mol Bulak clients have continued to repay their loans. The most affected branches were in Osh and Jalalabad, and comprise 29% of the total institutional portfolio. Even if both branches do not repay in full, Mol Bulak has 124% of the value in equity, which means it would likely be able to weather such a catastrophic loss. Information on the portfolio-at-risk due to delinquency are available for both the Osh and Jalalabad branches. The most affected branch, Osh, has 34% of its local portfolio at risk, while Jalalabad has 9% at risk.

Overall, Mol Bulak itself forecasts only 1.9% of its overall portfolio to be lost; their worst-case scenario is that 3.7% of its portfolio will have to be written off.

Mol Bulak responded immediately to the crisis and has provided relief funds to the affected areas. Mol Bulak offices reopened quickly after the violence and a crisis taskforce was created. Kiva received regular updates throughout the peak of the violence and throughout the assessment and rehabilitation phase.

Sadly though, 1% of Mol Bulak’s clients in affected areas died in the ethnic turmoil. Preliminary indications are that no Kiva borrowers died in the violence. (Kiva was not a targeted funding source in the south, where the ethnic violence was concentrated.) We have asked for written confirmation from Mol Bulak that Kiva's borrowers survived the recent violence.

Mol Bulak has been able to interview 62% of clients in the areas to assess their families’ life, health, and living conditions post-crisis. One percent of clients died in the violence, another 1% were injured, and 3% of interviewed clients had their homes robbed or burned down with 12% of their businesses suffering the same fate. Thus far, however, only 0.44% of affected clients have indicated complete losses that prevent them from repaying their loans to Mol Bulak.

At least 62% of loans in Osh and Jalalabad will be modified to extend repayments slightly, in order to grant more time and smaller monthly loan payments for clients to repay. Markets and businesses have reopened in the areas and life is slowly returning to normal.

We'd like to thank all of our Kiva lenders for your patience throughout this process.

July 16, 2010

On June 9th, 2010, ethnic violence broke out in southern Kyrgyzstan between the ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. This came several months after a violent uprising in April 2010 that led to the ousting of President Bakiyev.

Kiva is currently working with its field partner of over a year — Mol Bulak — to assess the impact of these events on its portfolio, as well as to assess the political climate. Mol Bulak is headquartered in north Kyrgyzstan and last year they expanded to the South. The majority of its loans have been made in north Kyrgyzstan, but it does have loans in the South.

During this time of uncertainty, Kiva has paused the settlements procedure. This has been done as a precaution, in the event we need to refund lenders who had lent new funds since the June violence broke out. As a result of the settlements pause, on July 1st, 2010, Mol Bulak's delinquency rate increased to 60.25%.

Kiva is currently in very close contact with Mol Bulak, and initial indications have appeared positive. We are reviewing the financial and repayment data now, and hope to make a decision on how to to move forward before the end of this month (July 2010).