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Does Facebook Represent the Future of International Remittances?

Though it may be a long way off, the "what if" of social networks playing a role in international remittances is exciting. Networks like Facebook and China's RenRen increasingly reach financially-excluded portions of the population and may have the potential to generate significant transaction volumes in places where m-wallets have struggled.

Can Voice Corridors be Used to Predict Mobile Money Hotspots?

Voice corridors aren't direct predictors of mobile money hotspots. But, this information can be valuable to mobile providers launching new services, since voice and mobile money corridors often overlap in new markets.

10 Things You May Not Know about Postal Networks

Postal networks have undertaken major transformations. They are increasingly leveraging their branch networks to play a role in financial services, and many are emerging as important gateways for financial inclusion of the world's poor.

Mobile Money: 10 Things You Need to Know

Mobile money is a fast moving space and 2013 was a busy year. Read our list of 10 trends in the mobile money arena in 2013.

Global Landscape of Digital Finance Plus

To illustrate the global landscape of Digital Finance Plus, CGAP has identified 55 companies providing innovative solutions in the energy, water, health and agriculture sectors.

Improving Education with Financial Innovation, Chapter-by-Chapter

Kytabu is a Kenyan-based company that offers a textbook subscription service where users can pay in small increments for individual chapters of textbooks and read the content on their cell phones. The company hopes to make educational materials much more accessible and affordable in Kenya.

Expanding Water Services with Digital Finance

Upon realizing that rural community water projects were often unsustainable due to poor accounting systems, Grundfos conceptualized a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) model that improves community water management by increasing transparency and reducing the reliance on cash.

Increasing Clean Energy Access through Digital Finance

Angaza is one of many new businesses helping to increase access to clean energy by providing innovative financing options.

Addressing Big Development Challenges with Financial Innovation

Financial innovation has great potential to help solve big development challenges in access to energy, water, education, health and agriculture.

Closing the MSME Credit Gap for the Informal Sector

An estimated 80 percent of enterprises in developing economies - approximately 280-340 million - are informal firm. Bringing these enterprises into the formal sector requires specialized approaches, due to the varying degree of informality across countries.

Jipange KuSave, M-Shwari, and the Influence of Startups

Even though startups often fail, their ideas and lessons can inform the next innovations in expanding access to financial services. The case of Jipange KuSave and M-Shwari is a great example of how one "failed" startup can enabling another's success.

Closing the Credit Gap for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

Micro, small and medium enterprises face many obstacles in developing countries, but access to finance remains by far the most cited obstacle experienced by firms trying to formalize, grow and increase productivity.

Can MFIs Leverage Mobile Banking to Serve Customers Better?

When given the choice of using a mobile payment platform - bKash - or a traditional bank branch, 42% of business borrowers in a BRAC pilot chose to use both options for making payments.

The Worrying Trend of Interest Rate Caps in Africa

Many countries in Africa have established interest rate ceilings to protect consumers from high interest rates charged by microlenders. However, despite good intentions, interest rate ceilings can actually hurt low-income populations by limiting their access to finance and reducing price transparency.

Understanding Customers for Financial Innovation in Ghana

The branchless banking market in Ghana is promising but has not gained traction as expected. CGAP and Tigo Cash decided to collaborate in order to better understand what’s preventing Ghanaian customers from actively using mobile money.

Why do Partnerships in Mobile Financial Services Struggle?

Mobile financial services implementations are structurally complex, and success can depend on building commercial partnerships between financial institutions, mobile network operators, agent network managers and service providers. However, these partnerships are complicated and can be difficult to forge.

How the Poor Can Benefit from Choice in the Remittance Market

Mounting competition and increasing innovation among money transfer companies are resulting in increased benefits to customers - especially senders of remittances.

Microfinance, E-Commerce, Big Data and China: The Alibaba Story

China's Alibaba Group is not only the world's largest e-commerce company, but it is also an innovator in microfinance. Alibaba leverages big data to link rural villages with the goods, sales channels and financial services they need to grow their businesses.

The “EasyPaisa” Journey from OTC to Wallets in Pakistan

While the founders of EasyPaisa guessed that they would reach a reasonable volume of customers through OTC services, they did not guess that OTC remittances would be the dominant activity by far for EasyPaisa's customers.

Financial Inclusion 2.0: India’s Business Correspondents

In India, the lack of access to financial services still poses a major challenge. FINO aims to close the access gap by extending services right to people's doorsteps.