Thanks for your questions. I like to begin apologizing for my English.
We normally said that from the point of view of FUNDEFIR, we are not running a micro credit program, but a financial education one. “Gaining financial literacy” means that we are teaching people basic concepts about finance, such as, inflation, investment, opportunity cost, change value, etc.
A recent study made by an independent economist in a book called “Bancos Comunitarios una Oportunidad para el Aprendizaje y la autonomía Social” (Bankomunales an opportunity for learning and social autonomy), he study how “values” regarding the way poor people related to money, have changed over the years after participating as member of a Bankomunal.
Financial Literacy is not only related to financial or economic knowledge, but to a change of values regarding “money”. Money is very complex concept, (link to moral and religious believes), that in many cases works against poor peoples opportunities to grow economically. The experience in Bankomunales as investors, helps poor people to chance the way they related to “money” and help them to have a more realistic view regarding this matter and give them better opportunities to change their economic reality.

Depende de cada país y de cada marco legal, sin embargo está basado en el principio de "derecho a la asociatividad". Los Bankomunales son Asociaciones y solo operan entre sus propios miembros, no atienden a terceros. Tampoco captan recursos de terceros, solo de personas asociadas, es decir, no opera sino solo sobre los que están asociados. En la mayoría de los países, la ley prohibe la captación de recursos del publico en forma de ahorros, el modelo nuestro, primero no capta del publico en general, ni lo hace en forma de ahorros, sino de inversión.
Nosotros somos muy respetuosos de la formalidad y de la necesidad de regular las entidades financieras que captan recursos. Por eso, cuando es posible, tratamos de hacer acuerdos con entidades regulatorias, proviéndoles de herramientas metodológicas para que se establezcan mecanimos adecuados de regulación, pues por tratarse de mecanismos innovadores, no siempre existen los instrumentos adecuados de supervisión. Sin embargo estos acuerdos no siempre son posibles. En ese casos basamos la seguridad en la "auto-regulación", dotando a los grupos de capacidad para que ejerza una regulación interna adecuada. para ello contamos con instrumentos contables perfectamente adecuados a la metodología que pueden servir, bien para una regulación externa o para la auto-regulación.
No pretendemos sustituir los mecanimos formales, muy por el contrario, queremos ser un instrumento de educación financiera que apoye la bancarización de las personas, pero creemos que la gente tiene derecho a servicios financieros de calidad, por ello, aún en la informalidad, tratamos de que se usen mecanimos seguros y justos, mucho mejores a los que por falta de acceso, las perosnas están obligadas a utilizar.

Thanks a lot for your interest.
The NGO is responsible for sharing methodology – teaching the Bankomunal leaders how to organize themselves (how to make rules, what responsibilities to assign leaders, and other important concepts). For example, the NGO explains that the interest rate should account for inflation, bank expenses, the risk of non-payment, and margin of earnings the bank desires. Ultimately, Bankomunales decide what conditions are best for their members: the price of each share, what interest rate to charge, the time limit of repayment, the maximum credit members can receive, and many other important details. That gives community the opportunity to adapt the methodology to their own reality. The interest rates, for example, should take into account the local credit market (including money lenders, micro credits programs, etc), as well as the macro economic situation of the country. The time to return payments also will be linked to community economic activity. The way they organize the group (leadership, rules, meetings, etc) also depends on community tradition and organizational culture.
Do they make mistakes? Of course they do, but leaders learn from such errors, but methodology is designed in such a way, that almost every thing produces an immediate effect on the Bankomunal profit. If the bank makes a mistake it is quickly discovered and corrected. The cost of such mistakes are low – not having earnings for a month, for example – but the knowledge gained is great.

I must apologize for my English.
Related to your first question: Basically we feel we should be linked to the formal financial system. We are not talking about competing with it, but rather to be partners. In first place we try to reach people that are very difficult and costly to reach by the formal banking system. Secondly we are educating people to enable them to be part of the formal system. In our model, once the Bankomunal have reached certain level of development, some of its members would have became entrepreneurs to the level that they required amounts in credits, that are too high for the community, so we encouraged the Bankomunal to partner with formal banks, so when members have reached this level, they should be financed by the formal system.

Related to your second question: We have tried in many different groups. From fisherman’s to peasants communities. From Venezuelan poor settlements in Caracas’s (barrios) to immigrants groups in Spain. From Bolivia’s Altiplano Indians communities to very poor communities in Senegal.
But the model requires a certain level of economic diversity in the community. It does not have to be very a diversify and complex local economy , but it might have to have a level of diversity. Somehow the model reproduces the formal banking system, because if you have economic diversity even in a small community, people would have surplus and needs to different times. For example, if you are a farmer and grow peanuts, you might be harvesting in November, so perhaps by December you will have surplus that can be used to finance your neighbor who deals with groceries and will need money that months. Communities with divers economic activities, even if they are very small, will have surplus and needs that can be matched with a local model.

There are many differences, not only on the financial model, but also from the philosophical point of view. Let us see some on the financial model.
The main distinction is that many savings and loan organizations only grant credit equal to or less than the savings one possesses. In other cases credits are granted at low interest rates so all the bank members can have credit access. The Bankomunales are not based on this principle because they focus on investment rather than simply savings. Thus, the Bankomunales do not save, they invest, and due to this their goal is to earn money from the loans. Another difference is that the Bankomunales have a maximum number of members. The bank’s objective is not to grow to have an enormous number of members, but to serve the members and allow them to have an active role in the bank’s decisions. For example, the conditions on which credits are granted, including the interest rate, can vary monthly if desired. Moreover, members see the benefits of their shares rapidly because dividends are typically disbursed monthly. Credits are received in average within a week of the initial request.

Básicamente la gente coloca su dinero porque simpre, aun en comunidades bastante pobre, existen excedentes temporales. Esos excedentes, aunque no pueden ser calificados de ahorro pues son más bien "gastos postergados", se pueden utilizar de manera temporal para el financiamiento de actividades de otros miembros de la comunidad, aunque sea igualmente por un corto tiempo. Si pensamos que la mayoría del financiamiento necesitado por la población es de corto plazo, entonves entenderemos mejor, como esos fondos pueden ser utilizados para el financiamiento de otros miembros de la comunidad.
Normalmente buscamos que los montos que pone la gente sean pequeños inicialmente y cuando ya hayan desarrollado mayor confianza y capacidad financiera, pueden ir aumentando.
Salomon