An initiative to develop an Open Source Microcredit Suite of Applications has been launched, it seeks to address problems inherent in presently used packages. Thomas Krag of multiplicity states:
“…[K]eeping tabs on thousands of tiny loans is a daunting task without a computer system. One of the problems has long been that most software packages for Micro Finance come from the traditional banking and finance software market, and are most often prohibitively expensive, or have been hacked together by a smal ngo somewher in the world as they gradually expanded their own microfinance services, and is hence anything but stable, adaptable and well documented.

“This has lead me, and many others to the inevitable conclusion that there would be a interesting market for an Open Source, Free (as in beer and probably also as in speech) microfinance package with a well-designed, stable architecture, and good documentation. The problem, which is also the reason why good Open Source financial packages in general have been few and far between, is that most geeks like to work on software that interests them, especially when doing this work in their spare time. And few real geeks (at least ones that I know) supplement their interest in computers with an intense fascination of finance and bookkeeping…”

The Mo-Ap Project seeks to change this state of affairs:

“…The Mo-Ap Project is conceived as an open source effort to develop standards, tools, libraries and solutions for the international micro-finance and micro-credit communities…High volume transactions, group solidarity lending, and field operations in poor rural locations all make Microfinance a difficult market niche to support with commercial portfolio management and accounting products. At the same time, the grassroots philosophy, low margins, and innovative tendencies of the emerging microfinance industry make it a good match for Open Source Systems development…”
Via Worldchanging