Due diligence and monitoring

Kiva takes due diligence and monitoring very seriously as part of our responsibility to lenders and borrowers. We encourage all lenders to learn about the risks of lending on Kiva as Kiva does not guarantee repayment on any loans. Lending on Kiva may involve loss of principal, for a variety of reasons including if the borrower doesn’t repay, the Lending Partner doesn’t repay or from currency loss.

The level of due diligence relevant to a specific loan on Kiva depends on a variety of factors, including how the loan is administered. Most loans on Kiva are administered by one of our local partners working in more than 80 countries. Kiva conducts due diligence on all Lending Partners prior to allowing them to begin posting loans on the Kiva platform. To learn more about this process visit our Lending Partner due diligence page.

Almost all Kiva loans for borrowers in the U.S. are direct loans, which are not administered by a Lending Partner. This gives Kiva the ability to reach populations that even microlenders can’t or don’t serve, but it also means these loans often involve a higher level of risk or default. To learn more about the due diligence for these U.S. loans, please visit the due diligence page for direct loans.