Sarah Rotman Parker

Sarah Parker is a Director, working on the Center for Financial Services Innovation’s (CFSI’s) public thought-leadership. She manages CFSI’s work on financial health, making this more tangible and actionable for providers in how they serve financial consumers. Having come to CFSI from working on financial inclusion internationally, Sarah is motivated to improve the overall financial health of American consumers. Prior to joining CFSI, Sarah worked at CGAP, managing their mobile banking agenda in francophone West Africa and leading global research on electronic government payments.

By Sarah Rotman Parker

Blog

The Cost-Benefit of Electronic Payment Systems: The Case of India

Electronic payments hold particular promise, and the key question is: What is the cost-benefit for a government to connect all households to an electronic payment system.
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The Last Frontier for Branchless Banking: State of Play in WAEMU

Access to finance in WAEMU is very low, even by comparison to other regions of Africa. The rate of bancarization announced by the BCEAO in December 2010 was 9.5% and 12.7% of the population had an account with an MFI.
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New Branchless Banking Resources – Headlines for April 2011

There are several new resources that have come out recently on branchless banking.
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Headlines for March 2011

Retail banking is not a high margin business. It is one where you have to earn a little from lots of customers, know them well and serve them well – not easy when you have many millions spread over a large area who may not be worth much individually even if they are better off than they have ever been before.
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Highlights and Headlines for January 2011

The news wires have been busy with the recent announcement of partnerships and joint ventures in the Indian branchless banking market. India’s largest public sector bank, the State Bank of India, announced a joint venture with the mobile operator Bharti Airtel to offer mobile banking. Meanwhile, India’s largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank Ltd, announced its tie-up with Vodafone Essar to bank the unbanked via the mobile phone.