Mario La Torre and Gianfranco A. Vento provide a comprehensive analysis of the microfinance business, covering the risks, returns and management issues associated with such activity. The main focus of the text is in extending the risk management approach used by traditional banks to encompass microfinance. The authors put substantial effort into analysing the fundamentals of banking management, highlighting practices that could be particularly useful to microfinance practitioners in collaborating with banks and financial intermediaries, as well as informal and formal MFIs. Using the risk management approach, the book identifies the different steps of the microfinance process, combined with the different areas of risk. It illustrates how to measure performance and how to identify and manage microfinance risks in order to improve financial performance. The text goes on to discuss the main products and services available in modern microfinance, offering a new taxonomy of modern microfinance, examining the performance and monitoring of microfinance business and, finally, describing how such activities can be regulated.