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This paper assesses the degree to which women actually control loans once they have gained access to credit institutions. It reports on recent research in Bangladesh and finds that a significant proportion of women's loans are directly invested by their male relatives, with women borrowers bearing the liability for repayment, although not necessarily benefiting from loan use. In these cases, gender relations and the household are in effect absorbing the high enforcement costs of lending to men in Bangladesh's rural credit system, because women have taken over the task of securing loan instalments from their male relatives. The paper argues that the current rapid scaling-up of non-formal credit operations is causing a preoccupation with credit performance, measured in terms of high repayment rates, to outweigh concerns to ensure that women develop meaningful control over their investment activities …