Yanina Seltzer

Yanina Seltzer is a former Financial Sector Specialist with CGAP's Customer & Provider Solutions Team. At CGAP, she led the technical work of the Customers at the Center Initiative and worked closely with financial service providers to adopt a more customer-centric approach to business.  Since joining CGAP in 2009, Yanina also advanced the Technology and Business Model Innovation Team's policy and business strategy in Brazil and supported branchless banking policy and G20 involvement with the Policy Team.

Yanina specializes in customer experience and in human-centered design for financial inclusion. Her work revolves around listening to customers, understanding their needs, wants and behaviors and translating these into products, services or experiences. Prior to working at CGAP, she worked for Mobile Metrix in Brazil, the Inter-American Development Bank and Nathan Associates. Yanina holds a master’s degree in Development Economics and International Business from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics, Politics and Latin American Studies from Brandeis University.

By Yanina Seltzer

Blog

Applied Research Methodologies for Financial Inclusion

In September 2011, CGAP’s Technology team invited the Brazilian firm Plano CDE to develop a study that would help them understand the behaviour, needs and expectations of low-income Brazilians in relation to financial instruments. The goal of the study was to contribute to the development of a new financial product or service that would attend to the needs of lower-income consumers and enhance their relationship with financial institutions.
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Meanwhile in Brazil...Are We There Yet?

The job of financial inclusion in Brazil is arguably done. Brazil’s banks have made it a global leader in branchless banking. The underlying retail payment infrastructure is in place. There are agent locations in almost every municipality. New agent management companies from around the world regularly visit more than 30 of their counterparts in Brazil to understand how the business works. And Brazil’s Bolsa Familia program, already successful in moving beyond G2P payments to credit and savings, is considered a global flagship. We start here by presenting our learnings from Brazil and share our summary note on the industry.
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Head of Brazil’s Central Bank Financial Inclusion Team Speaks to CGAP

We recently spoke with Elvira Cruvinel, head of a new Brazilian Central Bank team coordinating financial inclusion efforts. Only a handful of countries globally have created such financial inclusion teams at central banks. Elvira is part of this small pioneering group of leaders looking to effect major changes to the financial access landscape.

1. What is the Brazilian Central Bank’s vision of financial inclusion?

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Will Brazil’s Banks Share Agents?

In a country where agents have existed for close to 10 years nationwide, we would expect that by now banks would have found business reasons to share agents. From a consumer perspective, it is clearly attractive to be able to access banking services for multiple providers at a single agent.
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Can Brazil’s Agents Provide a Wider Range of Services?

The prevailing wisdom about Brazil’s vast agent network (largest in the world, 4x that of Kenya and the Philippines combined!) is that it is used mainly for bill payments. This network appears to be a missed opportunity to also make credit, savings, and other products available to low-income people in an affordable way. Is this channel being underutilized for poor people?