Mark Pickens

Mark Pickens is a Director of Emerging Market Solutions at Visa Inc. He’s based in Kigali, where he is part of the team working on the launch of an interoperable mobile money ecosystem in Rwanda. Mark joined Visa in 2011 with a decade of experience designing financial products geared to reaching unbanked consumers. Prior to Visa, Mark helped design and launch CGAP’s Technology Program which was one of the earliest socially-motivated investors at the nexus of electronic delivery channels and financial services for unbanked consumers. He has consulted to banks, mobile network operators, microfinance institutions, and technology start-ups in two dozen markets. His work is quoted in Wired, The Economist and The Banker, and he has instructed on microfinance at Wharton School of Business and Johns Hopkins. Pickens studied at the Institute of Design at Stanford University and holds a Master’s from Columbia University. He has lived and worked extensively in Africa and Asia, and is currently based in Rwanda.

By Mark Pickens

Blog

The Case for Product Innovation in Branchless Banking

CGAP counted 22 branchless banking services with more than 1 million registered users; we also counted more than 70 others which have not reached that threshold (as of Q1 2011). That’s about a 1 in 4 “hit rate”.
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Looking For a “Killer App” For the Poor? Sell Stress Reduction

We need to start treating willpower as a scarce and important resource. That’s the point pushed in a recent New Republic piece on “What can’t more poor people escape poverty?” And it’s a product opportunity for those designing financial services for the poor.
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Why Distributing Mobile Money Is Harder than Airtime for MNOs

It’s often said mobile network operators (MNOs) have the advantage over banks in creating agent networks from their dense carpet of prepaid airtime sellers. But is this true?
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CGAP Releases Agent Management Training Package

In February 2011, CGAP released an Agent Management Toolkit based on 500 interviews with agents, agent network managers and financial institutions in Brazil (Banco do Brasil and Banco Postal), India (EKO and FINO), and Kenya (M-PESA). This post introduces an Agent Management Training Package to enable practitioners to train their service partners about key steps in building a robust agent network.
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Tips on Mobile Money Product Design from Uganda

How much would you like to pay to save? Zero, most likely. In fact, you probably hate the fees your bank charges for the privilege of holding your funds and disbursing when you ask for them.