Financial sector in rural areas must cope with their typical weak integration of local financial markets with national markets, sparse population, interrelation of risks and scarce possibilities of their diversification, seasonal fluctuation of income and frequent lack of adequate collateral. In total, these characteristics lead to higher transactional costs. Moreover, financing of rural areas and agriculture will face barriers such as different forms of these sectors discrimination in the economic policy, and considerable while inadequately designed intervention of public authorities. The latter is a main feature of a traditional paradigm of financing agriculture and rural areas. It often consists in allowing cheap borrowings through the network of specialist financial institutions. Many years of experience proved, however, that the strategy of 'injecting' funds, in particular to agriculture, was inefficient, and gradually turned to be a compensation and redistribution instrument. Therefore, the concept to allow revealing reasons of underdevelopment and poverty in rural areas and at the same time enhancing the market capabilities becomes more and more necessary. Such opportunities are offered by the new paradigm of rural finance.