Recent Blogs
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Can Digital Cash Transfers Enable Financial Inclusion in India?
Although digitizing cash transfers in India is gaining momentum with a renewed effort by the national government, the direct positive impact on financial inclusion remains unclear.Blog
USSD Access: A Gateway and Barrier to Effective Competition
To serve the unbanked, mobile financial service providers continue to rely on USSD technology to bring innovations like mobile money to the unbanked. CGAP research in Kenya and Tanzania identified several competition-relevant issues in USSD access.Blog
What is USSD & Why Does it Matter for Mobile Financial Services?
USSD - unstructured supplementary service data - is currently the best available communications technology to deliver mobile financial services to low-income customers.Blog
Heuristics: A Behavioral Approach to Financial Literacy Training
ideas42 shares findings on what an effective financial literacy program could look like, based on insights about human psychology and decision-making.Blog
UOB Takes a Human-Centered Approach to Rwanda’s Smallholders
Nick Meakin of Urwego Opportunity Bank (UOB) discusses how Rwanda's first and largest microfinance bank is using a human-centered approach to designing financial products that better meet the needs of smallholder farmers.Blog
Wing Pushes Digital Finance Frontiers Further in Cambodia
Wing has become a leading player in financial inclusion in Cambodia, with over one million over-the-counter (OTC) customers and about 500,000 registered customers who can make transactions with cards or mobile phones.Blog
Managing Data is Critical to Knowing Your Customer
Innovations that make it easier for financial service providers to “know their customers” are critical for organizations that prioritize low-income client segments.Blog
Applying the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards in Lebanon
The Minimum Economic Recovery Standards (MERS) handbook provides a framework to analyze the basic requirements for financial service providers working in crisis environments such as Lebanon.Blog
Can HCD Lead to Digital Financial Solutions for Smallholders?
Designing appropriate and affordable financial solutions for smallholder households can be difficult. In collaboration with IDEO.org and Dalberg’s Design Impact Group, CGAP will draw on its experience to apply human-centered design (HCD) to smallholder product design.Blog
Digital Finance in Bangladesh: Where are all the Women?
Bangladesh has long been a success story for women’s financial inclusion, but in terms of digital finance, the story is very different.Blog
New Basel Report Documents Financial Inclusion's Mainstreaming
A new report from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision reveals the extent to which supervisory and regulatory practices are evolving in response to the emergence of new institutions, financial products and intermediation channels.Blog
Responsible Digital Finance for Kenyan Merchants: Five Priorities
Kopo Kopo enables more than 10,000 merchants to accept mobile payments from their customers. As Kopo Kopo considers consumer protection risk areas, they identified key concerns and questions in each which they are working on addressing.Blog
What Will It Take for Payments Banks to Succeed in India?
Despite the introduction of innovation-friendly regulations and other advances, wide-scale digital payment services remain unproven in India.Blog
Papayas and Digital Finance: Emerging Consumer Risks in Colombia
The results from recently conducted design workshops with digital financial services clients in Colombia point to simple, yet innovative ideas to help mitigate consumer risks in digital finance.Blog
AML/CFT: Balancing Regulation with Innovation
CGAP has conducted research to better understand how processes for achieving anti-money laundering (AML) compliance affect how financial institutions can extend financial services to poor populations.Blog
Setting the Stage for Mobile Money in Myanmar
The rapid growth in telecommunications coverage in Myanmar is laying important groundwork that can support growth of digital financial services for the unbanked.Blog
Can India Achieve Universal Digital Financial Inclusion?
India's Prime Minister has launched an ambitious financial inclusion program aimed at reaching 75 million people with bank accounts and subsequently government transfers, insurance, pensions and credit.Blog
The Arab World in Crisis: How Should Donors & Investors Respond?
Donors and investors focusing on financial inclusion in the Arab World are determining how to adapt their approaches given the level of crisis in the region. It's a complicated issue, but many organizations have provided resources to aid decisionmaking.Blog
Benin’s Expansion of Digital Finance
The market for digital financial services in Benin shows potential. However, major barriers need to be addressed for digital finance to thrive and contribute to financial inclusion.Blog