Recent Blogs
Blog
A Quick Journey Through the History of Usury
Microfinance is at a critical juncture, and as we reflect on how we got here, should ask: What makes us different from what was previously done through the ages, since coins were first established as a medium of exchange? And how do we maintain what’s different and avoid slipping into the well-worn paths that emerge when we examine the history of usury?Blog
Paying Attention to the Financial Needs of Youth
Despite growing interest in youth financial services as a means to financial inclusion, until recently there has been precious little publicly available information on what youth in developing countries want from financial institutions.Blog
Savings Groups
More than 5 million poor people around the world are members of Savings Groups that provide essential services to help manage their daily lives.Blog
Microcredit in a Changing Region
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been facing a series of unprecedented events in 2011, resulting in a great deal of change after over three decades of stagnant political dictatorship, uneven economic growth, and increased poverty.Blog
Commercialization of Microfinance
The topic of commercialization has been hotly debated, largely because it raises fundamental questions about whether the dual social and financial missions of microfinance can coexist.Blog
Microfinance and the Arab Spring
Since the beginning of 2011, a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests have been taking place in the Arab world. These events have created some challenges and opportunities for the microfinance sector and the financial inclusion agenda in the region.Blog
Waiting in Line…Where’s My Agent? Headlines and Highlights
I’m blogging from Dakar, Senegal where I had a stark reminder of why innovation in financial services is so necessary.Blog
Microfinance Should Have Started with Savings
Much of the world is in trouble today because of debt, too much borrowing, presumably not enough saving, by individuals, companies, countries and groups of countries.Blog
Why Poor People Don’t Use Savings Accounts
Recently a colleague shared results of the follow-on (forthcoming) study that Dupas and Robinson did on their landmark 2009 RCT study on savings in Western Kenya.Blog
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.Blog
Islamic Microfinance Challenge: A Summary
A business model for Islamic microfinance: what does it need?Blog
Can Collecting Savings in Rural Areas Be Profitable?
The importance and role of savings with respect to the economic and social development of developing countries and of African countries in particular have long been recognized.Blog
Does Savings Help Protect MFIs from Political Interference?
Until recently, microfinance in India (really microcredit) had been driven by innovators and entrepreneurs, but also enabled by government policies such as of priority sector lending and regulatory restrictions prohibiting deposit mobilization for most MFIs.Blog
A Little Willpower Can Have a Big Impact
When Women’s World Banking (WWB) started our savings and financial education program for girls in 2008, we were excited about the potential to provide a sustainable, scalable way to encourage girls to build assets and become better money managers.Blog
From Basel to Bujumbura: Why Deposit Insurance Matters
Broad access to safe and affordable small savings accounts promotes financial inclusion and helps households prepare for unexpected expenses and plan for a more secure financial future.Blog
Reaching the Poor and Very Poor with Appropriate Savings Services
More and more people understand that even the poorest save. But, reaching the poor and very poor does not happen automatically.Blog
Al Amal, Winner of the Islamic Microfinance Challenge 2010
Al Amal provides various financial services and products (Islamic financing, savings, solidarity insurance, etc.) and is among a handful of microfinance institutions in the Arab World providing Islamic financial services.Blog
Postal Banks Have Potential to Open 1 Billion Savings Accounts
Toward the end of the 19th century, postal services began to contribute to the development of a savings culture in many of today’s industrialized countries. And they are playing a similar role in developing and emerging countries at the dawn of the 21st century.Blog
Centre for Women Co-operative Development, Pakistan
Innovation at CWCD has led to a complete organizational transformation, where CWCD has let go of its conventional microfinance programs and dedicated itself completely towards Islamic Microfinance.Blog