ATLAS: the financial and social data platform for MFIs

Since 2017, ADA has been financing the development of ATLAS, an online platform managed by MicroFinanza Rating (MFR) which centralises data on the financial and social performance of financial service providers. ATLAS aims to promote transparency in the inclusive finance sector, in particular to guide social investors in their investment decisions. The platform’s public launch was in early 2020.

Objective

The "ATLAS" online platform aims to centralize a maximum of data relating to the practices and performance of financial service providers, both financial and social.  

It therefore aims first to promote transparency in the inclusive finance sector, enhance the value of the most committed actors in the sector, guide social investors in their decision-making, and encourage other actors to improve their practices.

Website of the platform: https://www.atlasdata.org/

Where do the data come from?

The data available on the platform may be provided directly by financial service providers or by certain partners working with several suppliers at once (rating agencies, investors, networks, sector support workers, etc.), either via the ATLAS standard form or via existing tools that are compatible with the platform such as MFR social and financial ratings, Cerise's SPI4 social performance management audit or Microfact's MFI Factsheet. ATLAS also contains all historical data from the Mix Market.

Financial services providers may decide to share their data either with names recorded (increasing MFIs’ visibility) or anonymously. This data is only accessible to ATLAS subscribers, namely investors, regulators, international donors, networks and organisations that support the sector.

At end-2020, ATLAS aggregated data from 3,544 financial service providers in 138 countries. More than half of its costs were covered by subscriptions and data management projects. The platform plans to become financially independent from 2022. In addition to financial support for developing the platform, ADA contributes to the supply of information by encouraging its partners to share their data on ATLAS (www.atlasdata.org).

Who can access these data?

The ATLAS platform data are accessible only to its subscribers, including investors, regulators, international funders, networks and organisations that support the sector. These subscribers have the possibility to consult the social and financial information of financial service providers, and thanks to functionalities specially developed for the platform, to analyse and compare them with those of other providers according to various criteria (country, region, size, legal status, etc.), for information, decision-making or research purposes.

Consult the subscription rates: https://www.atlasdata.org/vue/data-subscription

Stakeholders

The project was developed and managed by Microfinanza Rating (MFR). It is financed by ADA and the Luxembourg Cooperation, the Swedish Cooperation, the Agence Français de Dévelopment (AFD), PROPARCO, the Liechtenstein Development Service and CDC.

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