Yesterday I had a delightful lunch with Jean Claude Rodríguez-Ferrera Massons of ACAF and Puddle, and Jose Quiñonez of the Mission Asset Fund, two wonderful people full of exciting ideas. What a pleasure - I knew them both a bit through the internet but had never met them in person. 

At one point, I asked Jean Claude how he dealt with loan approval in his on-line puddles. He replied, “Oh, there is no procedure. Loan approval is already done when you form the group. If you invite someone into a group, it’s because you trust them. If you trust them, you don’t need to approve their loan. They just borrow the money when they want to.”

Brilliant!

This reminded me that Ernest Heminway reportedly once said, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”