Rafe Mazer

Rafe Mazer works with CGAP's Policy Team on applying behavioral research to consumer protection and financial inclusion. For more than five years he has been designing and leading behavioral research projects with policymakers, providers and donors to help understand how our behaviors impact financial decisions and outcomes.

Research issues Rafe has explored include: Does digital delivery credit change how we borrow and save? Why do financial sales staff sometimes give the right advice, and others times mislead consumers? Do consumers really care about their data privacy in financial inclusion? Why do some consumers choose to complain about a problem, while others remain silent?

This research has been used to develop a range of financial inclusion solutions, including interactive SMS for mobile savings and credit, key facts statements and disclosure regulations, complaints handling regulations, data disclosure messaging, and regulations for consumer protection in digital financial services. He has led research in markets including Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Philippines, and Tanzania.

By Rafe Mazer

Blog

Studying Behavior Can Inform Effective Consumer Protection Policy

Policymakers in emerging markets are only recently starting to use behavioral methods to address consumer protection challenges. There are some straightforward ways in which consumer protection policy can be more effective when it is based on insights into consumers' behavior.
Blog

Financial Consumer Protection: 5 Lessons from Behavioral Research

The boom in behavioral research methods means that gaining a deeper, more evidence-based understanding of how actors in a financial market behave, what incentives drive them, and what new policies or products can lead to responsible and inclusive financial systems.
Research

Applying Behavioral Insights in Consumer Protection Policy

This Focus Note presents emerging evidence on behavioral biases relevant to financial consumer protection, their consequences, and how market conduct regulation and other measures might best reduce abuse and produce better services for consumers.
Blog

Complaints Handling: A Secret Ingredient to Financial Inclusion

When things go wrong with consumers' financial services, having a good system for addressing complaints and resolving problems can go a long way towards building long-lasting uptake and usage of financial products.
Research

Making Recourse Work for Base-of-the-Pyramid Financial Consumers

This Focus Note explores innovative ways for policy makers and providers to raise awareness and improve accessibility of recourse mechanisms, tailor recourse to suit new products and delivery channels, and proactively use recourse data to address systematic problems in BoP markets.