Informal Credit
Typology
See the four-quadrant mapping at the Continuum of Informality of Credit graph:
The essential constituents in the continuum were:
1. Informal Suppliers or Personal Credit Suppliers - those who exhibit fully informal characteristics in their setup. Examples include friends, relatives and neighbours.
2. Formal Suppliers - those who exhibit fully formal characteristics, examples include, commercial banks, finance corporations/ companies.
3. "Informally-formal" suppliers or Transactional Credit Suppliers - those who are essentially 'formal' in their setup, but exhibit 'informal' characteristics. Examples include pawn brokers, money lenders and employer credit.
4. "Formally-informal" suppliers or Mutual Credit Suppliers - those who are essentially 'informal' in their setup, but exhibit formal characteristics. Examples include Chit funds (ROSCAs), credit societies and people's organizations. (http://www.gdrc.org/icm/continuum.html)