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Micro Health Insurance: Chronicle of a Death Foretold?

Micro health insurance clients are increasingly being served by government-backed services. Does this mean that the trend is to move away from private providers?

Mobile Payment Systems:What Can India Adopt From Kenya’s Success?

Despite some initiatives in India, the adoption of mobile payment technology, especially among the low-income population, has been cautious. What can India learn about mobile money services in Kenya?

Financial Inclusion In 2012: South Asian Highlights

Recent trends in South Asia reveal measured growth for microfinance, and a steady increase in branchless banking networks, across the region.

Will This Bank Run Away? Women And Mobile Banking In Bihar, India

A recently released women and mobile banking report by GSMA and Visa Inc resonates with the conversations the author has with women in rural Bihar, in some of the poorest parts of India.

Remembering PINs in Rural Bangladesh

Firsthand observations in some of the branchless banking initiatives around the world indicate that poor customers tend to struggle with remembering and correctly entering their personal identification number (PIN) to access and verify transactions in their branchless banking account. The Employment Generation Program for the Poorest (EGPP) conducted research to assess whether and how beneficiaries can be trained to recognize and remember numbers, even if they are illiterate.

Lessons from India on Weather Insurance for Small Farmers

With 22 million farms covered by a yield based index, 3 million by a weather index insurance and 340,000 farms covered by an insurance combining the two indices, India is probably today the most innovative and experienced country in agricultural index insurance in the world.

Tailoring Formal Financial Products for the Poor

In our last post, we shared findings from the South African, Bangladeshi and Indian Financial Diaries that built the case for formal and informal financial services serving different purposes in the portfolios of the poor. We found that the two should be viewed as complements rather than alternatives to each other.

Ten Lessons for Multiplying the Graduation Model

With half of the 10 CGAP-Ford Graduation Program pilots now completed and a significant collection of evidence showing the effectiveness of this approach, how do we begin to scale up?

Beyond Capital Gains: The Multiplier Effect of Youth Savings

The toll of deep financial strain often promotes destructive decisions and low productivity among impoverished populations.

Does Client Protection Matter to Clients?

What do microfinance clients think about client protection? Do client protection principles really matter to them?

Building India’s Model of Agent Banking

CGAP, in collaboration with the College of Agricultural Banking, just completed a national survey, which captured the big picture on agents across the country. In India, the term customer service point (CSP) is used to refer to individuals who act as agents on behalf of banks.

Mobile Banking Ekosystem in India

Mobile banking is just one of the reasons India is a place to watch for innovations in financial inclusion. This short film profiles one such innovation, Eko, to see how businesses chasing the fortune at the base of the pyramid are serving the needs of poor customers in India.

Can the Microfinance Sector Help Deliver Clean Energy?

Offering financial products that enable poor clients to purchase clean, low-carbon alternatives to kerosene, firewood and other conventional fuels is perhaps the most direct way in which microfinance can be mobilized to combat climate change and preserve ecological resources.

India’s Microfinance Industry: An Anatomy of Risk for April 2012

With around 20 million borrower accounts estimated for March 2012, India still has one of the largest microfinance industries in the world. However, in March 2012 it also had the dubious distinction of having perhaps the worst portfolio quality in the world (at the national level).

Branchless Banking Country Notes

Over the past several months, we have taken a close look at the branchless banking industry in our focus countries.

Southern Development Agendas versus Northern Angst

India is on a Financial Inclusion roll. In the last couple of months alone, the Government has decided on several policy and regulatory changes that have the potential to significantly accelerate financial access to the more than half of Indian households who remain financially excluded.

Branchless Banking in India: More Reasons for Optimism

In keeping with this optimistic view of a still uncertain India venture, we conclude with three more positive items to highlight. Two reflect new changes by the government and one goes back to the fundamentals.

The Biggest Social Experiment on the Planet

Millions of Indians—day laborers, beggars, office workers, rich and poor—are lining up to give their fingerprints to register for a government-issued ID. For many, it’s the first time they will have a formal ID.

Eko’s Mobile Banking: A Basic Payments Product

Eko was the first company dedicated to a mobile phone-based basic savings account and payment service for the unbanked in India. Launched in 2007, Eko has carefully developed a mobile-based service usable on the most basic of handsets and continually revised and re-fashioned its approach.

Beam in India Demonstrates the Power of Convenience

Beam is one example of a mobile phone based service that offers something much simpler and lies at the far end of the spectrum of financial services.