The first and most important way to earn points is by making correct decisions about whether to make loans to the MEs you meet. Each ME will describe their business and family circumstances, and then you will have to decide it they can afford a loan, and which loan product best meets their needs. New Horizons Bank has lending guidelines that will help you decide if an ME can afford a loan and which loan product is best.
TIP: You'll need to use the information in the lending guidelines for EVERY loan decision you make in the game.
As you explore Good Hope Township, you can choose the order in which you meet each of the 10 MEs. You'll meet each ME at their place of business, where they'll provide financial information that will help you evaluate their loan requests. Each ME will have three loan requests that reflect their changing circumstances throughout the game. You'll consider all new information for each new loan.
TIP: You will need to keep track of each ME's financial data for every scenario in order to make your decision. We have provided a spreadsheet to help you keep track of each MEs finances.
After hearing each ME's story, you'll be prompted to ask two out of four questions. Evaluate the questions before asking: only two will give you the answers you need for your loan determination. The other two questions are insightful, but will not provide you with hard data required for a decision.
TIP: Gathering financial data, such as business and personal expenses, will help you choose the questions leading to answers containing relevant financial information.
After you have asked your two questions, you will have a chance to choose the best loan, out of five possible choices, that best meets the needs of the specific ME. You will offer the loan product with the proper term, interest rate, and principal and monthly payment amounts. You will be lending micros (mcs), the local currency of Good Hope Township.
- Sample loan product: WC 2,200mcs; 12 M; 35% R; 219mcs P + Savings
- WC (type = Working Capital) 2,200mcs (principle); 12 M (term); 35% R (interest rate); 219mcs P (monthly payment) + Savings (Savings Account)
Your task is to choose the product best suited for the ME's needs, ensuring that the loan is within their financial capacity to repay, and that their business needs match the requirements and characteristics of the loan.
IMPORTANT: An ME can only qualify for a loan if their monthly capacity to repay the proposed loan is 70% of their monthly net income. This is a critical rule to remember!
For example, if an ME's net income, after all expenses are deducted, is 100mcs per month, the ME's capacity to repay their loan is 70% of that (100mcs * 70% = 70mcs). Therefore, the ME's capacity to repay the loan is 70 mcs per month, and in this instance, this is the number that determines if the ME can repay a loan.
New Horizons Bank and other MFIs established this rule to ensure that MEs do not use all of their new income to repay their loans, and will have some financial capacity remaining each month for other expenses that may arise or to establish savings accounts.
A second way to earn points is by answering "Did You Know" trivia questions quickly and correctly. Immediately following each loan decision, you'll be given two questions about microfinance, corporate responsibility, or Credit Suisse. The questions are timed, so the faster you answer them, the better your score. All source material for these questions is included in the Reference Library section of the game.
TIP: Read these documents BEFORE you begin playing the game, take detailed notes, and keep the documents on hand for quick reference.
All of the questions use data and information from these documents, and many are quite detailed and specific. Since they are timed, you may not have a lot of time to look up the answers.
Additional Tips:
- Remember, this is a fictitious game environment, and external sources will not provide the data needed to help you make a decision. Focus only on the information presented in the game and the game tools.
- The financial data and loan product characteristics contain the information you'll need to make the correct decision.
- MEs will sometimes make requests for loans that they can't afford, so in some cases, the correct decision is not to lend.
- The financial data rolls over from scenario to scenario, so keep track of each ME's income and expenses in your Income and Expense Statement spreadsheet, and pay close attention to any changes.
- New Horizons Bank prohibits lending a larger principal amount than an ME requests, but in some cases you can lend a smaller principal amount.