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Is Responsible Finance in Your DNA?

Responsible finance is a way of doing business – a never-ending process of adapting your products, processes and policies to keep your clients at the center.

Responsible Finance: The “New Normal”?

We should expect the great majority of microfinance providers, funders and others that are double bottom line institutions to be able to measure the extent to which they’re benefiting their clients and to use this information to improve services.

Making Microfinance Prices More Transparent

The problem of keeping your price transparent is obvious — it’s difficult to show a true price that looks higher than the competition when, in fact, it is lower than that charged by others.

India Microfinance Bill Offers a Mixed Bag to Investors

The change in the thinking of the government in terms of introducing the comprehensive microfinance bill to replace the old one and emphasizing the supremacy of the regulator, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is a consequence of the events in Andhra Pradesh where the State Government has introduced a State level Act to regulate MFIs.

State Bank of Pakistan Removes Barriers to Branchless Banking

In March 2008, the State Bank of Pakistan introduced some of the first regulations anywhere in the world designed specifically to encourage branchless banking. The regulations allowed a number of different business models and permitted agents to deliver financial services on behalf of banks.

India’s Microfinance Bill Answers Most Questions

The bill is an important first step; several more steps in translating the bill to action are required before we reach a stage that restores the vitality of the sector.

India Microfinance Bill – The Good and The Bad

India’s microfinance bill is a very positive development for the microfinance sector because it brings the sector into the ambit of organized financial services.

Branchless Banking in South Africa

South Africa has often been used as a case study by those with an interest in financial inclusion. The country has an advanced banking infrastructure with nearly 10,000 ATMs and over 100,000 POS devices deployed.

Does Branchless Banking Reach Poor People? The Evidence from Mali

This is the third posting in a mini-series in which we present new evidence from three countries on whether branchless banking is reaching poor people. This post looks at Orange Money in Mali. Previous posts looked at India and Pakistan.

Ghana: Aiming for Interoperability in Branchless Banking

With 6 live branchless banking deployments involving 12 banks, 3 Mobile Network Operators, 2 start-ups and a government entity, the race is on in Ghana to reach the unbanked with branchless banking services.

New Policy Framework for Inclusive Finance in Jordan

In January 2005, the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC) in Jordan formed a Microfinance Committee to prepare, with technical support from CGAP and through a consultative and participatory process, the first national strategy for microfinance in the Arab world.

A Bold Move Toward Simplifying AML/CFT: Lessons from Mexico

Regulators around the world today are beginning to realize that the chances of expanding access through branchless banking can be very limited without reducing the account-opening requirements through agents and mobile phones. The challenge is to strike the right balance between reducing account-opening requirements while maintaining basic controls for AML/CFT.

Regulation at Last for Indian MFIs

The proposed guidelines introduce customer protection within regulatory framework of credit-only institutions for the first time.

Microfinance Regulation in Post Revolution Tunisia

The need for a new microfinance law came up at a recent conference in Tunisia.

Developments in the Arab World

Although it could be too early to analyze the impact of recent events in the Arab world on microfinance, one can conclude some general and common lessons despite differences among countries.

Some Insights into Over-indebtedness in India

Microfinance Institutions in Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere in India are keen to avoid over-indebtedness or place clients in distress.

Which Way? Mobile Money and Branchless Banking in 2011

There was much movement in 2010 at the intersect of technology and access to finance for the poor. CGAP’s new Branchless Banking Database synthesizes a mass of data into a short 12-image “story” about what branchless banking is and the key hurdles we face in 2011. The focus is on mobile phones, but we quickly add that some of the most interesting work is still being done with debit cards and even simpler technologies, such as bar codes.

Measuring Cross-indebtedness in Latin America

While over-indebtedness can be difficult to observe in practice, we can use simple surveys to estimate one proxy for over-indebtedness: cross-indebtedness, or the number of institutions from which the typical borrower has a loan.

Over-Indebtedness: Roles and Responsibilities of All Actors

Still one of the keys to addressing over-indebtedness is analyzing the ability of the borrower to repay.

Constructing an Early Warning Index

Over-indebtedness has a detrimental effect on all players involved: first and foremost for the borrower.