Staff Directory

William Cook

Senior Financial Sector Specialist

Based in Nairobi, William Cook focuses on payments, financial market infrastructure, and digital business models. Before joining CGAP, William held a variety of roles in financial services, including six years with Ernst & Young LLP in the organization’s advisory and audit practices.

By William Cook

Blog

In Kenya, Bank Accounts Again More Popular than M-PESA – Why?

Bank accounts today once again outnumber mobile money accounts in Kenya -- by over 30 percent. Innovations like PesaLink have helped banks achieve this growth, showing that banks can thrive in the face of mobile money.
Research

Banking in the M-PESA Age

This Working Paper explores three approaches banks in Kenya have used to respond to mobile money. While nonbank mobile financial services can fundamentally reshape the financial sector in a developing market, as they have clearly done in Kenya, mobile services need not represent an existential threat to the traditional banking industry.
Blog

The Secret Life of Mobile Money Pricing

Mobile money fees are often viewed as a barrier to financial inclusion, but they can play an important role in building healthy markets for digital financial services.
Blog

How Do Mobile Money Fee Structures Impact the Poor?

Pricing data from leading mobile money providers shows significant diversity in pricing models.
Blog

Interoperability: More Than a Technological Challenge

For most practitioners, interoperability brings to mind the technical tools that allow modern payment systems to work together. CGAP’s new global scan on digital financial services interoperability makes it clear that exchanging payments is about much more than technical connections.