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The Next Step for Mobile Money Providers: Moving Toward Sustainability

To commemorate the 2nd anniversary of the Haitian earthquake, we are running a few blogs on the mobile money industry that has developed in Haiti over the past two years. The consulting firm Dalberg has recently completed three pieces of research on the Haitian market as part of Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI).

Three Wishes for Latin America in 2012

In 2012 with the focus shifting away from “hot-spots” and yes/no debates on microfinance, and hopefully towards greater product diversity and complete financial ecosystems, Latin America is poised to assume a leadership role.

Top 10 List: Powerful Partnerships in Branchless Banking

A few weeks ago in Washington, DC, we hosted many of our partners who are implementing branchless banking products and services around the world. This was a chance not only for us to learn about the state of play of the industry at a global level, but also to allow the partners themselves to share learnings and experiences with each other.

Tracking Mobile Money Use in Haiti

We all remember the devastating 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 reportedly destroying about one-third of the country’s bricks-and-mortar bank branches, limiting Haitians’ ability to send and receive money transfers, cash checks, or simply access much-needed cash resources.

What Can We Learn From Selling Soap?

This post includes a detailed presentation of CGAP’s analysis of 23 firms from banking, microfinance, mobile, fast moving consumer goods, and Silicon Valley. It also describes the key features of three Product Labs which will be established by CGAP’s bank, telco and other partners.

Segmenting the “Bottom of the Pyramid” in Mexico

Reaching the poor with a range of useful, convenient, and affordable financial services is challenging for all the reasons we know. In the context of Mexico, access has increased significantly in the past few years (nearly 60% of all households), and changes in regulation enabling correspondent banking are likely to bring the access barrier down even further.

FOROMIC 2011 – Pura Vida!

This pura vida spirit could also be used to describe the status of financial inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean, as the industry proactively pushes for product innovation to increase access and lower cost, while confronting challenges like overindebtedness and rural finance.

“Four C’s” for Expanding Rural Microfinance

You cannot ask everything of microfinance institutions. This is doubly true in rural areas. Institutions that enter rural areas on their own are less likely to succeed than those that form partnerships with technical assistance and educational organizations, suppliers of inputs, etc.

Moving Beyond Micro: Women-Owned Businesses

The profile of a woman business owner in Latin America and the Caribbean is as diverse as the factors on which her success hinges, yet the vast majority are microenterprises by necessity, not by preference, in informal service sectors.

Over-Indebtedness in Microcredit

Recently, MIX has explored portfolio quality problems around the world, a common proxy to measure overindebtedness, and various relevant patterns emerge for the discussion of over-indebtedness in Latin America and around the world.

Branchless Banking Headlines & Highlights: Updates from Africa and Beyond

Summer is now officially over here in Washington and the busy fall season is off to a quick start. If you are just getting back into high gear, maybe this is a good time for us to recap some of the things we’ve been discussing on the blog over the last couple months, some of the latest news that’s caught our attention, and some things to keep your eye on in the coming weeks.

Mobile Money Moving Rapidly Ahead in Haiti

Despite the difficulties in Haiti during 2010 and into 2011 (earthquake, infrastructure destruction, elections and political unrest, cholera epidemic, tropical storms, floods, and gas shortages), the response to HMMI by the mobile operators, technology providers, financial institutions, institutional users, and Haitians has been very positive, with both Tcho Tcho Mobile and Ti-Cash launched before the end of 2010.

Can Mobile Money Support Post-Conflict Development?

There's been a great deal of excitement over the last few years regarding the potential for mobile money to solve a host of development problems. An increasing number of post-conflict countries are all experimenting with or thinking about mobile money implementations. In addition to the normal issues and challenges facing policymakers and service providers, post-conflict and post-disaster countries face additional problems that merely serve to exacerbate the overall challenges with mobile money.

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.

FATF Puts Financial Inclusion on its Agenda

In early June, Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the G20 called on international standard- setting bodies to consider how they can further contribute to encouraging financial inclusion, consistent with their respective mandates. One key standard-setter is well on its way to heeding the G20’s call.