Chris Bold

Chris Bold is the Deputy Head of DFID Uganda and Head of the Growth and Economic Management Team. He is the Lead Adviser for the DFID funded Financial Sector Deepening Programme in Uganda. Prior to moving to Uganda, Chris has worked in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone and spent two years working with at CGAP on Digital Financial Services and the use of technology to bring down the cost of delivering financial services to poor customers. He supported CGAP projects in Kenya, Pakistan and Haiti.

By Chris Bold

Blog

Does Branchless Banking Reach Poor People? The Evidence from India

This is the second post in a mini-series in which we present new evidence from three countries on whether branchless banking is reaching poor people. This post looks at banking customers acquired and serviced by Eko as a Business Correspondent of banks in India. The first post looked at EasyPaisa customers in Pakistan.

Blog

Does Branchless Banking Reach Poor People? The Evidence from Pakistan

In this mini-series we explore new evidence from three countries on whether branchless banking is reaching poor people starting today with Pakistan.

Blog

Pakistan: Branchless Banking’s Business Model Laboratory

Over the past several months, we have taken a close look at the branchless banking industry in a few key countries. We have presented our learning from Brazil, Mexico and India over the last few weeks. Today we continue with our analysis of Pakistan and share this summary note on the branchless banking industry.
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The State of the Branchless Banking Sector

As part of our efforts to promote branchless banking as a way of reducing the cost and expanding the reach of financial services, the Technology Program monitors the uptake of branchless banking around the world.
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Branchless Banking and Microinsurance: A Perfect Marriage?

In previous blogs Mark Pickens has lamented the lack of innovation by branchless banking providers in products that go beyond payments. But there are some green-shoots of innovation. In this blog we take a look at some examples of early experiments that we have seen involving in micro-insurance.