Staff Directory

Maria Fernandez Vidal

Senior Financial Sector Specialist

Maria Fernandez Vidal is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist, leading CGAP’s work on Data. Her work is focused on the role data can play in advancing financial inclusion and covers a range of topics including data-driven business models and open finance. She has also worked substantially with fintechs, platforms and advanced analytics. Before joining CGAP, Maria was at McKinsey & Company, working in Latin America & the Caribbean and the US. At McKinsey, she served clients in the financial sector and the public and social sector on a broad range of topics including strategy, risk, operations and organization. Maria previously worked at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Endeavor.

Maria holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with majors in strategic management and finance, and graduate and undergraduate degrees in economics from the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella.

By Maria Fernandez Vidal

Research

The Building Blocks Supporting Open Finance

This working paper introduces the concept of an inclusive data ecosystem as one where low-income people’s data trails are used to improve their financial inclusion. The paper highlights open finance as a catalyst for inclusive data ecosystems and identifies key enabling layers that drive the success of open finance and, by extension, an inclusive data ecosystem.
Research

Leveraging Transactional Data for Micro and Small Enterprise Lending

The use of transactional data for credit underwriting can play a part in closing the estimated US$4.9 trillion global financing gap for micro and small enterprises. This case study examines the data and experience of two fintechs in India that use different sets of transactional data for credit scoring.
Blog

Open Finance Can Reduce Financial Inclusion Gaps: Here’s How

Open finance can be a transformational enabler to unleash the power of data to increase financial inclusion. Data-driven strategies and open finance ecosystems can revolutionize access to financial services, especially for underserved communities.
Research

Gender-Intentional Credit Scoring

Evidence shows women often demonstrate higher loan repayment rates than men, suggesting they are lower-risk borrowers yet face higher barriers to loan approval. This guide introduces a gender-lens analytical framework for lenders to determine whether lending decisions and outcomes in their portfolios differ by gender and, if so, how.
Blog

Success in Open Finance Requires Trust – Lessons from Brazil

Brazil's rapid expansion of open finance shows its potential to transform financial services, and recent CGAP research offers valuable insights into Brazil, as well as other markets interested in implementing open finance.