For them the loans are often diverted to consumption since they can use the relatively large lump sum of the loan, a luxury they do not come by in their daily turnover. Since the mid 1990s research on microcredit use has found that it often goes to "help the poor smooth consumption over periods of cyclical or unexpected crises…"7 Again, there is no question that such a use of credit helps the poor, but this is not what the majority of microcredit enthusiasts claim it can do - function as capital aimed at increasing the returns to a business activity.